


Firelighting

by Oparu



Series: The Bottomless Sea 'Verse / Dragon Outlaw Queen ficlets [15]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Childbirth, Multi, Polyamory, background Captain Swan, dragon outlaw queen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-11-25
Packaged: 2018-08-10 20:04:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 27,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7859314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oparu/pseuds/Oparu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Henry's adaptation of the story book opens one snowy night with most of the town in attendance. His family is thrilled and proud as the play tells their story. Wanting to join her brothers, the little flame arrives, over one long night and a day, starting a new chapter in Maleficent Regina and Robin's life together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a village aiding in the birth of a child. In five chapters we see Killian, Emma, Robin, Maleficent and Regina's POV. 
> 
> There's background Captain Swan, which was really fun for me, but I know it's not for everyone, but Regina, Robin and Mal needed some support and Snow and Charming wouldn't work. Emma and Killian were the next best choice and they were fun for me to write.

_"Life is a flame that is always burning itself out, but it catches fire again every time a child is born." - George Bernard Shaw_

 

* * *

 

 

He isn't sure why a tie is so much less comfortable than a cravat, but he wants to tug on it all evening. Killian reminds himself not to pull on his necktie and settles into his seat. The paper program is difficult to read with one hand because he can't hold it open well. He struggles with it for a moment and then a hand holds it open for him.

"Here," she says, "I can hold it." Maleficent turns in her seat, shifting closer to him. "The students did this themselves. There's drawing of me on the second page and I think they did a great job with the horns."

He hasn't seen her horns that closely, but if she's happy with them than the drawing must be good. She holds open the first page, waiting for his permission to turn to the next.

Henry's foreword sits on the inside cover, and the lad is quite eloquent as he expresses his thanks to the town and his family in a grateful couple of paragraphs.

"I'm so proud of him," she says.

"I think everyone is." He drags his hand through his hair, and smiles." Probably the whole bloody town, but it's well-earned. Writing a play is a difficult thing, and it can't have been easy to balance everyone."

"You mean writing a play where your mothers are the protagonist and the antagonist, and your stepmother dies at the end."

He grins. "I will admit to a certain relief in knowing that I will not become a character until the next installment."

"But which of these charming children will have the honor of portraying you then?"

"I imagine the most dashing one."

She smiles at that, tilting her head towards the program. "Are you ready for the next page?"

"By all means."

She holds the program quite steady for a while, then her hand moves, jumps. Killian turns his eyes to her, and she stares straight ahead, without looking. Her free hand rests on her belly, and it seems her attention is drawn to that.

"Are you all right?"

Her sigh drags up from her chest. "it seems something always has to hurt lately."

Emma has mentioned that as Maleficent nears the birth of this child, she's been increasingly uncomfortable in a way Snow White never was. Contractions come in bursts, taking her strength and concentration for a time, and then leave her no closer to the child's appearance. Emma's face went soft in sympathy when she told him, and though he understands little of the process of childbirth, he knows pain, and how frustrating it can be when it arrives for no reason.

"My hand still hurts, on occasion," he offers, holding up the hook. "Worse than the pain is when it itches and I can't scratch a place that no longer exists."

"So you live with it." she agrees, shifting in her seat. "I'm fine, and I shall endeavor to hold the program on a steady course."

Chuckling, he touches her hand and her skin's so warm. "Cargo that won't stay put is always difficult. Cargo that moves on its own, well, that's something I usually tried to avoid."

Mal smiles at him, perhaps grateful for the distraction. The lights dim and she tucks the program away. Her hand lays on the armrest between them, but her fingers go taut light leaves them.

That remains in his thoughts as the play opens on Emma, at least, a young woman's version of her, sitting along with a tiny cake and a single candle. She blows it out, leaving them all in darkness, then someone knocks. Tiny Roland yells his lines through a door, and the story begins. A son finds his mother and brings her home, to his other mother who would rather the whole thing just went away. He's read the storybook, heard these recounted to him several times, but seeing it acted out with miniature version of everyone who is now his family touches his heart.

Also, the young woman playing Regina has just the right amount of menace, Roland remembers most of his lines, and young David and Snow stare at each other with a kind of heartfelt longing that reminds him watching young loves in taverns. All love can appear the same, in moments.

Watching this is a pleasant enough way to spend an evening, to be sure. He knows the gist of the plot well enough that his mind wanders occasionally, and during one of the wanderings, he notices that the hand occupying the armrest is tight again. Much tighter than before, in fact, her own arm is rigid with strain when he touches Maleficent's wrist. He rests his hand over hers, questions without speaking. To his surprise, her hand turns in his, taking his as if he'd offered. Perhaps he did. He's not sure how close they are, being that simply being the shared potential step-parents of a boy with a great abundance of family does not make them friends. Killian does not wish to presume a closeness that is absent.

Regardless, in this moment, she plainly needs one, so he squeezes back and waits for her grip to lessen before he whispers. “You’re damaging the upholstery."

The play continues. Theatrical-David, a friend of Henry’s, has just arrived in the forest, ready to be robbed by theatrical-Snow White back in the Enchanted Forest.

He can barely see her nod in the weak light, trying to relax her fingers.

“Are you all right?”

“I think–” Her whispered protest dies in her throat. This is not mere discomfort. This is something else. “It's nothing, again,” she insists when she has breath again.

“Regina and Robin are just down there,” Killian says, tilting his head. “I can get them.”

“No, not now, not yet.”

“I’m here, he whispers back. "But be gentle, I only gave the one good hand.”

“Maybe you should let me hold the hook,” she teases back and the pain lessens in her voice.

He shifts, passing that over as well. He doesn't expect her to take it, but having it there might make her smile. “Shall I remind you to breathe?”

“Only if I stop.”

Maleficent settles into her seat, and her breathing slows, calms. Young Snow and David defeat the trolls and part ways, with David off to marry some princess. Killian's quite forgotten her name. Nearly a whole scene passes before her hand closes around his again. There's very little he can do other than run his thumb over the back of her hand or murmur to her when her breath catches in her throat.

Centuries at sea have taught him patterns and how to find rhythms in the wind and waves, The contractions that drew Emma's sympathy were irregular, weak and random. These bouts of discomfort grow closer together as the intermission approaches and when the lights rise, he looks at her with eyebrows raised.

She nods, hesitant, but shakes her head when Regina, Robin and Emma return from the front row, cameras down for the moment.

Their faces all glow with happiness and pride, and together they speak non-stop of the wonders of Henry's writing, Roland's performance, and the flashes of magic that have been provided by Lily.

That at least makes the dragon smile in a way that even he finds utterly believable. He stands, resting against the arm of the seat between them, moving her hand to his knee. Robin and Regina are so enraptured with the performance of their children that it seems a portal to another realm could open without their notice. Emma, however, makes quick note of the way his hand covers Maleficent's. When the beaming pair head off together to fetch a cup of water and discuss Roland's performance with Marian, Emma looks from him to the dragon and back to him.

"What's wrong?"

He's quite terrible at lying to Emma, but he's saved from the prospect because it seems Maleficent is far worse.

"It's simply more of those fruitless, wasted contractions that insist on being very uncomfortable for several hours."

None of them believe that, so he does not mention that they have a decreasing rhythm that he does not need a timepiece to track or from the pressure of her fingers, he's certain they're becoming more intense.

"I'm sorry," Emma says, and her half-smile is very gentle.

"Robin and Regina--"

"Will totally flip out and want you to go home and Lily's big moment is at the end of the play," Emma finishes. She leans over to kiss him, and they share a moment of silent understand. "Don't hurt his good hand."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Maleficent replies. Robin drops off a small paper cup of water and kisses her cheek before the lights dim again and they're gone to snap a whole gallery full of pictures.

""Emma understands how much you want to see the end," he promises her, rubbing her arm through her sleeve with the round side of his hook. "When it's over, you'll need to tell Robin and Regina because these are neither irregular or weak."

Maleficent nods, pressing her lips together. "I want them to have this," she whispers back. "It's a few hours that they've been waiting weeks for."

"You believe the child will take all night to arrive?"

"And most of tomorrow," she adds, wincing.

He can't help wincing at that. Willingly walking into nearly a day of pain that only grew in intensity would intimidate anyone, himself included. If an hour or two of pretending it is not happening will help, then he is happy to oblige. Emma should have given him more to do than just wait, but if there was more, she would have told him so perhaps this is all he can do.

"Now, you are holding your breath," he whispers while the young version of Regina saves a tiny Snow White from a horse.

On his right, Maleficent shudders, releasing the air in her chest.

"We're almost to the dragon," he says. "It won't be much longer."

Her fingers squeeze his gently this time and in the darkness, he fancies that she smiles a little. This is Emma's story, and that of his family, and the earnest young performers keep tugging at his heart.

Young Regina watches her mother, a fairly appropriate portrayal of the queen of hearts, crush the heart of her beloved, an innocent called Daniel. She sobs over him, staring up at the evil who has ended her chance at happiness and he is the one who needs the friendly hand at this side. Maleficent wraps both of her hands around his and the heat of her soaks into him.

When Milah died, he returned to his ship, alone amongst his crew. He drifted, pillaged, murdered and tried to drown himself in the darkness of his heart. He failed, and found Emma. Emma comes with Henry, her parents, little Neal, Regina, Robin, Roland, and the dragon holding his hand. She is beloved by the town, and wrapped in family.

As he is now.

He's only held Neal for moments, while something's spilled or Emma needs to get her coat. He's become fond of the lad Henry, but he's interactive in a way an infant is not. He has a vague understanding of the appeal of a warm baby asleep in his arms. Robin's been aglow since the revelation of this baby's existence, and Regina's been smiling more, even beaming about the planning for the child.

Emma's brightened at their happiness, shared it because she is fond of the three of them, and protective as she always is. This eminently arriving babe is a part of their happy ending and Emma will ensure that they have it. This will probably involve him as well, and holding Maleficent's hand now may only be the start of a long night to come for all of them. None more than her, so he smiles his gratitude in the darkness, and the play moves on.

Maleficent sits forward in her seat, staring at the darkness as the lights dim so only Emma's character has the stage. She stands alone with a sword, entering a cave, and then, the dragon appears.

She emerges from behind the stage, rising out of smoke and she rears up over the audience. Surely part of it must be an illusion because the ceiling of the gymnasium is high, but perhaps not quite high enough because Lily easily rises as high as the second yardarm of _the Jolly Roger_.

The crowd gasps and fire flies over their heads, it's even warm, and Maleficent's grip on his hand is purely that of pride, instead of pain. Lily portrays her mother dragon well, some of the children in the audience scream as she fights with the play's Emma, and the gasps and cheers are all in the right places.

Maleficent 'dies' to a round of applause and the dragon herself sits back, sighing. He touches her shoulder gently with his hook to draw her attention.

"I imagine few have been so pleased with the depiction of their death."

She begins to murmur back, but her whisper dies in her throat.

These pains grow closer, creeping up on each other. Though she tolerates this discomfort enduring through most of this pageant, she must be tired.

"It's all right," he whispers for lack of something else to say. "Lily was wonderful."

That earns a squeeze of his hand. Watching for Emma's blonde head in the front row, where she's still taking pictures, he wonders what happens next. It's not his place, but there must be some kind of inevitability involved in sending her home, and keeping her safe.

The fervent rush of applause at the end of the show drowns a gasp of pain, and as the crowd erupts in celebration around them, he offers his shoulder and arm to get Maleficent to her feet. They share a look, a quiet moment while everyone cheers around them. The tension in her eyes eases.

"Standing is better?" he asks. He has to lean close, perhaps too close, but they're already entwined.

She nods, eyes half-closing. "Thank you."

Killian makes sure she's steady before he adds his voice to the cheering.

The final curtain call is Henry's, and his heart swells for the lad. This is his vision of their history, something of theirs that he remade and offered to them and it's clearly struck the hearts of everyone in the room. On his right, Maleficent has tears on her face that have nothing to do with childbirth.

Lily finds them first, rushing to hug her mother. They wrap together, and he tries not to stare. Lily opens her eyes and gives him an awkward smile over her mom's shoulder.

"First school play where I was ever proud of myself."

Maleficent holds her daughter's face in her hands and beams. "You were wonderful."

"I was you and I died."

Chuckling, Maleficent lowers her hands. "But you did it well."

"If you say so."

"You certainly made an impression."

"I almost didn't duck enough, and I thought the fire might have been too hot and--"

"You were perfect," Maleficent promises. "I'm so proud."

This naked affection twists his heart, warming it. He does not remember his own mother, and his father traded him away, a part of his history that still stings, yet he is surrounded by good parents. Emma, Regina, Robin, and it seems the dragon as well, because she wants nothing more than to tell Lily how wonderful she was.

Emma finds them, touching his back while Maleficent encourages Lily to go talk to everyone else: her young brothers, Granny, Ruby, and Marian will all want to see her.

"Ursula and Cruella are bound to tease you and me, for my vanity." Maleficent strokes Lily's arm again. "Of course, you were much more beautiful than I."

"I was being _you_ , Mom."

"And you were great!" Emma adds. "Considering I was there, I feel like I can speak for how terrifying it is to have a dragon stare you down, but uh--" She flushes a little, looking down.

"It's all right, dear," Maleficent assures her, removing her hand from Killian's arm long enough to pat Emma's. "You were rather expertly manipulated into it, and fortunately for me, death didn't take too much of a hold."

"Lily!" Ruby says, wrapping her arm around her. "How was it it? You looked amazing.'

Lily gives her mother one more small smile, and tentatively follows Ruby over to be congratulated by more people. Maleficent's gaze follows her with such affection that it almost seems invasive to watch her face. He turns his eyes to Emma, taking in her radiant smile. Henry's successes mean so much to her, and this is a happy occasion.

Maleficent's fingers grip his arm when the next contractions hits, faster than he expected, she should have had more time. The sound of the crowd around them dulls her hiss of breath, but Emma still reacts, takes her hand and smiles softly.

"Are you sure you don't want Regina and Robin?"

Shaking her head, Maleficent returns Emma's smile with a weary smile of her own. "It's not bad."

Emma looks to him. "Do you have your flask?"

Killian blinks and pats his coat. "Yes, of course."

"Give it to me." Taking it from him, he touches Maleficent's shoulder, meeting her eyes. "If you drink a few swallows of rum, your contractions might slow down a little, might let you get some sleep when you get home."

"Sleep?" He asks before he realizes that he's speaking.

"Even a little bit helps," Emma says, both gentle and wise. He adores that about her. "If you can handle the taste--"

"It's quality rum."

"I'm certain it is," Maleficent assures him, taking the flask from Emma. "This is on the forbidden list."

"I'm sure," Emma says, and that smile returns. "It's late, you're tired, and little baby dragon here will be absolutely fine if you have a drink, then try and get some sleep at home. Trust me. I've seen it work".

Must be one of her bail bondsperson adventures. He'll have to ask. Her stories are often amusing.

"I'll let Regina yell at me," Emma offers and that makes the dragon smile back.

"That's very kind." Maleficent takes two draughts from his flask and hands it back. She finds his eyes, hers blue ones serious and calm. "How long do I have?"

He glances at Emma before it occurs to him that she's asking him.

"Your sense of timing is excellent."

"It is necessary when sailing," he says. He should be using a timepiece. Emma has one. "It will be soon."

"Don't tense up," Emma warns. "It's worse if you're tense."

"Good advice." Maleficent searches the crowd, as if making sure Robin and Regina are out of sight before she allows any discomfort to show in her face.

Emma, of course, is far better at this than he is. "It's hard to follow, I know."

Emma was so young when she had Henry, does she remember the advice given her then or is this collected knowledge in the time between? She always wants to help, so perhaps she knows this now so no one suffers alone as she did.

Smiling at him, Emma gives him one of those looks, the heroic, saviour glance that promises he will again help atone for his past by assisting her. He nods, his agreement without needing to speak.

"I'd like to send Killian to Regina's with you," Emma begins. "That way you won't be alone and Regina and Robin won't rush home to be with you. You have hours yet, so watch _Game of Thrones_ , play cards, do something to keep your mind off it. Drink tea."

"No more rum?" Maleficent asks, smiling with gritted teeth.

"No," Emma answers, ever gentle. "I won't tell you it's not awful, but you'll be all right. Find Regina and say goodnight, I'll grab your coats."

The latter may be directed to both of them because he's just volunteered for something he is woefully underqualified for. Luckily, he doesn't know enough to worry about what could happen. Emma says there's time and he trusts her. It seems Maleficent does as well because the two of them leaving together becomes a plan: a plan he has agreed to.

Maleficent does not share his apprehension, because she takes his arm when he offers it and they leave the relative safety of the seats once she has her breath back.

"You have six, maybe seven minutes before you have another one. Since you have the poker face of a cabin boy on his first voyage, if you want to avoid Regina's ire, I suggest you say goodnight quickly."

"I've always hated long goodbyes," she teases. Maleficent smiles at him, almost as if testing it out before looking at anyone else. "I'm sure you've smuggled before."

"Never a dragon."

"Always a first time."

Henry's thrumming with excitement like a full sail in a stiff breeze, and luckily, he draws most of the attention because it's difficult to get a word in edgewise about Maleficent going home.

Emma, of course, comes to her rescue, coats in hand. Regina stares at her and Emma hands Killian's coat over and starts helping Maleficent into hers. "Killian's going to escort Maleficent home," she explains, entirely calm.

"What?" Regina asks, raising her eyebrow while her voice lowers. "The pirate?"

"She's exhausted," Emma speaks for her, "and Killian volunteered."

"He can't drive. How do you expect to get there? Are you taking them?"

"Regina," Maleficent begins, softening Regina's expression simply with the gentle tone of her voice. "He doesn't have to drive, all he has to do is hold still."

"And you're all right with him going with you?"

"I appreciate the company," she answers, graciously. "And I assume you would not want me to head home alone."

"Of course not," Robin agrees, concern written into the lines on his forehead. "We'll all feel better if you're with someone."

Maleficent's hand starts to tighten on his arm; their time draws short.

"I'll see you soon," she promises. Robin leads forward to kiss her goodnight but Regina hesitates.

"Are you sure you don't want one of us to come home with you?"

"Yes, quite sure, dear," Maleficent says. "Stay, enjoy the party, eat cake."

Ignoring food sparks Regina's curiosity. "You don't want any?"

Maleficent starts to reply, but Emma interrupts.

"We can bring some back for her," Emma says, smiling easily. "Regina, they'll be fine. I remember how tired I was when I was that pregnant, " That hint of past vulnerability makes Regina's expression soften. Robin nods to her and Regina steps forward to kiss Maleficent's cheek.

"Tell the boys I'm proud of them."

"Of course," Robin answers. "We'll see you soon, but don't feel like you have to wait up."

Magic engulfs them, whisking them away before the hesitation in her breathing becomes a gasp. That she saves for Regina's foyer. She wavers, shutting her eyes to focus. Free from prying eyes, she rests her hands on his shoulders, his coat absorbing the sharpness of her grip.

"I'm tempted to give you more rum," he teases. Her weak smile in return rewards him with a warmth in his chest. Caretaking is so far from his realm of knowledge that he won't even call it one of his weak suits. It's not a suit he has ever played.

"Thank you."

"I told you it was quality stuff."

Her weary laughter, even stilted by discomfort, charms him. He doubts he could be so positive in her position.

"What does it feel like?" Perhaps that's not a question he should ask, maybe she wants to think about something else. He should change the subject.

"Metal," she says, panting. "It reminds me of taking a spear in the back." She opens her eyes then and winces. "Only that did not creep forward and wrap around my stomach as this does."

He doesn't ask in which body this occurred, hopefully the dragon, so the spear would be smaller. "And standing is still better?"

"Much."

All right, he just has to get her out of her winter clothes, fix her a cup of tea and try and find something distracting they can do while standing. Simple. "Well, at least you're home."

Nodding, she presses her lips together, then sighs. Her breath stutters in her chest. Her muscles must be tight.

He scratches the back of his neck, searching his thoughts for things to say, for what to do.

"Whom did you lose?" she asks, shocking him back into his thoughts.

"Pardon?"

She has to take a breath before she can speak, but she finds words. "Watching Cora crush a heart troubled you. Who did you lose?"

"Milah," he replies, again without thinking. Perhaps it is the desire to provide distraction that makes him so willing to bare the old wound. "She was once Rumplestiltskin's wife, and she fell in love with me. We sailed the world together before we returned for her and and the Dark One killed her."

"His wife before the darkness?"

"The same."

Maleficent's grip on his shoulders eases. "I'm sorry."

"Old wounds heal with time."

"Not without scars." Her bright blue eyes study his face and he's reminded of the predators he's seen with that unrelenting gaze.

"Would you permit me to take your coat?"

She nods, even helps him by shrugging it off her shoulders. He hangs hers and his own in the hall closet and removes his boots. Regina does not take kindly to snow tracked on her floor and he will attract enough of her ire without lectures on the flooring when she returns.

He drops to one knee before Maleficent, contemplating the laces on her winter boots.

"Robin tied them," she explains. "I could use magic."

"Never fear, I am proficient in unlacing," he teases from the floor. "Years of practice with corsets and these are wider laces." Digging the hook into the knot makes it fairly easy to undo and once unbound, she steps out of her boots.

"Most gallant."

He puts her boots in the closer and returns to her side. "What?"

"I was thinking that I was once skilled in the art of removing a corset." She folds her arms over her belly and smirks. "It was a different time, but a pleasant one."

"Oh really?" He returns her smile and offers his arms again. "Perhaps we have more in common than I thought. If you'd accompany me to the kitchen, I am also proficient in the making of tea and Emma thought that was a good idea."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> But you gave Maleficent rum, what are you doing?? - Never fear, readers, I did some research. A little bit of alcohol inhibits oxytocin (the hormone that causes contractions) and can be useful if labor starts late at night so mom can sleep for awhile. No fic babies were harmed, I promise.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma and Snow work some things out and Emma knows the baby's coming and somehow she has to tell Regina without getting fireballed for her trouble, luckily there's Robin, and the boys, and Lily, and Marian. 
> 
> Also, Killian and Maleficent find a good way to distract her. (involving legos).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many many thanks to shinewithalltheuntold, gotatheory, trinadeckers, lucyllawless and x-wishesonfallingstars-x.

The cake is decent, even good. On the third bite, she's convinced: Granny has been trying new recipes she's learned on the internet. Maybe she's even watching that baking show half of Storybrooke is in love with. She eats her cake, letting the conversation flow around her. 

Henry and Lily have a hundred stories about being backstage and everything that could have gone wrong. Roland deserves to be (and is) praised extensively for remembering his lines. He even found a way to hold still during the end, until 'Emma' kissed him awake. It's bittersweet, talking of moments of death and pain as if they were just in the past, things to be acted out and spoken of, like the pageants she'd been in in school as a kid. 

This is their history, not the pilgrims, not the settlers and immigrants, Emma and her family, changing everyone's life, bringing them here from another world of magic to one without magic, then with magic. Maybe it's the price of being the princess, but she's never liked being the center of attention. Henry's so much better at it. He glows as he answers questions and talks about why he chose the scenes he did. 

Roland runs around with some of the other kids, with toy swords. "We don't fight dragons," he says very seriously. "Dragons are our friends." The other kids nod seriously and decide they will fight a troll, because it is scary and stupid. 

She used to watch kids play Harry Potter in the park. These kids might see a real troll. Might even need to fight one off, so this is a different kind of play. Her phone vibrates in her pocket and she excuses herself, walking off into a quiet hallway. 

"Swan?" There's a hesitancy in his voice she can't help finding endearing. She did give him a tough task, even though Maleficent's been really calm. Way calmer than Regina's going to be.

"Hey, how are you guys doing?"

"We're fine. I have made tea but I've made the kind with caffeine in it. Whatever the bloody hell that is. Since the child is about to arrive, would it matter if the dragon drank it anyway?"

"Not really," Emma assures him. 

Maleficent says something in the background and to her surprise, Killian chuckles. 

"What?"

"She says it can't be worse than rum."

Emma smiles at her phone. "Drink it. Get comfortable, try and stay calm. I'll be there soon." 

"We're calm as the doldrums, Swan." 

"I know." She sighs, silently grateful that she can count on him because her parents aren't an option with this one.. "Thank you."

"I do have an affinity for children you know," he teases back. "Even very fresh ones."

"They might make us babysit." 

"I hear they're easier when they're smaller."

The moment of peace ends in a contraction. He shuffles with the phone and the sound of sharp breathing is very close to the phone. 

"Hey," she says, hoping he'll hear her. "You're doing great, just stay calm. Wait it out. Do something distracting." 

"Right."

The call clicks off and she stuffs hers back into her pocket. She can picture the look on his face, concerned, lost, but trying. Maybe she should have gone with them. Maybe she should slip away earlier, now, in the next few minutes. 

It's early labor. It hurts but nothing's going to happen. Even if her water breaks, they'll be fine. Maleficent's probably not even dilated much at all and no Wicked Witch is coming to steal the baby. Killian can be very caring, very sweet, he can do this. 

She just needs to tell Regina what's happening without being fried to a crisp. Easy. 

Emma takes another glass of punch and downs it, which it had rum. She should have kept the flask, but Killian might need it. 

"Where's Hook?" 

Shrugging, Emma holds out her cup for more punch. It's better than the cake. "I sent him home with Maleficent." 

"With Maleficent?" Her mother stares at her over her plastic cup. "Killian." 

Emma looks over at Regina and Henry and then shrugs. "She's been having regular contractions, I didn't think she should be alone." 

Snow follows her eyes to Regina, where she stands next to Henry, still beaming. "She doesn't know."

"She'd leave," Emma says. "She'd miss this."

"This is just a party." Snow's tone has a harsh side to it. 

"This is Henry's party, because he wrote something for us. All of us, and it's great. He's happy, they're happy. We're all so proud of him." Emma sets down her glass because she can't stop playing with it. "Maleficent wanted them to have this while they could."

"She told you that?"

Emma nods, trying to shake the sudden defensive stiffness in her chest. "She loves Regina." 

"I know that." Snow puts down her own glass and folds her arms over her chest. "Neal came so much faster than you, that's all. Maybe someone else should be with her."

Resting her hand on the table, Emma picks up a piece of glitter and stares at it on her fingertip. "Lily didn't arrive this way, you know that." Looking at her mom is too hard.

"I know, I just--" Snow touches her arm. "Emma, we meant to bring her back."

Emma finds Lily in the crowd. She's smiling, and almost looks like she's having fun. Maleficent couldn't have taken her from this, her or Regina, or Robin, who has been roped in to be the troll for slaying. This is the kind of moment she never thought she'd have. Family everywhere, kids, a school pageant she didn't hate, or feel awkward and alone afterwards. 

This kid's going to come into this, like little Neal did. She's never going to know being lost, being separated. She'll be tucked in and sung too and always be able to find her parents when she's afraid. Hell, she even has a bonus parent. 

Jealousy would hurt, so this is something else. Emma's not sure what, but her chest aches. 

"Maleficent will get to raise this baby." 

"Of course, Emma." Snow's gaze flicks to Regina. Who will be easier to talk about. "Will she be okay?" 

"Regina? Yeah." She shuffles her feet, shifting her weight. "Usually one worries more about the person having the baby." 

"Resurrection magic."

That makes no sense at all. Emma blinks. "What?"

"Maleficent said it was resurrection magic that made her so sick, before, when it was just morning sickness. Well, not just, it was pretty bad, worse than anything I ever--"

"Mom?"

"Sorry." Her mother meets her eyes with a half-smile. "Will that it make labor harder, too?"

"Labor's hard, Mom, you know that, especially the first time."

"This isn't the first--"

Emma starts to protest, again, they just went over this. 

"No, Emma, listen, I know you were upset when I went to the first time mom's group, and with Lily--"

"I'm not saying this is her first baby, just that laying an egg in dragon form probably doesn't have the same effect on her hip bones." Fighting the urge to take out her phone again, she stuffs her hands into her pockets. 

"You still blame me," Snow says and a darkness passes through her expression. 

"You took her child. You know how terrible that is."

"We were manipulated, Emma." 

Emma rolls her eyes. "That doesn't make it better. You can't take someone and alter them because you think it helps your own kid. It's so selfish. It's evil."

"Evil?"

This is not the place to have this discussion, Lily and Regina are so close and she has to get back to Regina's house and make sure Maleficent and Killian are both okay, but Emma can't stop herself. "Yeah. What if it had been the other way? If Maleficent took me from you to protect Lily, to save her somehow, and then she never brought me back. How long would it take you to forgive her?"

"That's different. I forgave Regina."

Shaking her head, Emma watches her father pat Regina's back and smile with her. "You had a history with Regina. You already loved Regina."

Snow takes a deep breath. "You know, Maleficent said she forgave me and that I was the one who had to learn what forgiveness meant." 

"Maybe that's true."

Something flits through Snow's expression, some realisation that settles into her eyes. "I'm not going to be able to help Regina with this, am I?"

"Maleficent's still afraid of you. It's not rational--"

Nodding too quickly, her mom gets it. "No, no, I understand." 

Emma pats her shoulder. She tries. It's hard for everyone and her parents are genuinely trying, to be more aware of their past and just how much they've affected everyone's lives around them. That hero thing is hard to get over. 

"You should tell Robin first."

"Yeah?"

"Let him tell Regina."

"I thought that seemed a little mean."

Snow smiles again, somehow sad and knowing. "He'll be fine." 

"Okay, thanks."

Mom nods again, squeezes Emma's arm. "I'm glad you're helping them."

"Of course. Anyone having a baby should have the chance to control that, what little they can."

"Because you couldn't?"

Emma's heart sinks into her stomach and for half a second she's small and terrified of the crushing pain in her stomach, locked in a cell, waiting for Henry. 

"Yeah, I guess."

"I'm so proud of you."

She wants to blush and hide, but she smiles. "Thanks, Mom."

* * *

Regina and Henry are still laughing across the gym when she gets Robin to the side. Having slain the troll, Roland now stands with them, relating his stories of being Henry and having to learn his lines. She could watch him smile all day. Kid's adorable. Regina's said how thrilled he is about getting a little sister because he's always the smallest. He wants to protect someone. Henry has the kind of blended family she always wondered if she'd have some day. A brother, a sister, maybe one of each. He'll have people who look up to him and he has Lily sliding into that role for him, as odd as it is. 

After their quiet year in New York with just them, this overabundance of family is almost overwhelming. She still hasn't figured out what this baby is to her. Her son's little sister, probably like a niece, maybe, but by the time Neal's old enough for her to have nieces and nephew's, she might be a grandparent if Henry decides he wants kids.

Killian really just should have left her the flask. 

No one's come to tell them something is attacking the town. No earthquakes, no chernobog, maybe this baby can arrive on a quiet winter day and Emma won't have to take Regina away to fight something. Even if Regina would leave, she shouldn't have to. It's interesting to imagine being in her place, having a baby is a happy thing, even if it is a demanding one. She didn't think she'd be involved, but if Killian's already there, she'd be kidding herself if she thought she'd leave. Someone has to make sure Robin and Regina eat, and sleep, and answer all of Henry's questions. Someone will have to keep Lily sane, because Emma knows exactly how hard it is to think about your mom having another baby. 

One she gets to keep. 

She's going to stay, so Henry will have to go with Marian, or her parents. Marian makes more sense, the boys can look after each other. She'll have to talk to him. 

"You've cut me out of the herd," Robin teases her, resting his hand on her shoulder. She likes his smile. It reminds her of David. "Thought I wouldn't recognize hunting behavior?"

Emma smirks. "I think I was worried more about the herd than you." 

"Is the herd going to spook?"

She sighs, stuffs her hands in her pockets and then looks directly at him. "One of them will."

"Ah." His smile erupts and how much he loves this baby radiates from his smile in waves. "Is it time?"

Her face heats, and she has no idea how she's going to look at Regina and tell her the same thing. "Maleficent asked me not to say anything. She wanted you to have this while you could."

"She's like that," he says. His smile continues and he glances at Regina and the boys. "When did her contractions start?"

"With the show, pretty much, Killian said they're pretty regular now, about five minutes, but you probably still have a day, so don't--"

"Roland took a day and a half," he interupts, smiling fondly at his son. "Marian insisted she was fine, she could sort firewood and cook and help with the camp, a couple pains weren't going to distract her."

Emma grins at that. Of course she'd say that. "And?"

"She was right. Roland came much later, when the stars were out and the sky was full of promise." He turns his face back towards Emma and his eyes shine like the stars he spoke of. 

"This one might get snow."

"Well, her mothers' love it." He sighs again, but that smile refuses to fade. "All right. They're still fine?"

"Killian called a while ago, he accidentally made forbidden tea."

Robin laughs. "The list on the fridge is pretty intimidating."

"A little caffeine now isn't going to hurt anything, there's a lot going on in having a baby, so many hormones and stuff." 

He studies her, then gently, he touches her back. When she doesn't resist, he pulls her into a half-hug. "Your assistance is appreciated."

"Not having to tell Regina is worth it."

Robin laughs, really laughs, and it carries enough that the little knot of family stares at them. "I think that's my cue." 

"I'll get the kids." 

"Thanks."

Robin heads over, kissing Regina's cheek and taking her aside. Emma follows them with her eyes as they head back over into the hall towards the auditorium. She braces herself, because she doesn't know what Regina's going to do and poofing out of there kind of seems like it might be what she goes for, especially when she starts. There's a flush of magic, bright purple, and then it stops, with Robin's arms are around her. It's almost too intimate to watch them, and he kisses her forehead. 

Lily grabs Emma's arm. "Hey, what's?"

Emma smiles at her, trying to be gentle because the boys are right there and Robin and Regina should tell them. "Everything's fine," she says, feeling a little bit like Robin's rubbed off on her. 

Lily almost smiles, but she can't. Emma gets that. She reaches over, resting her hand on her shoulder. "Your mom's with Killian, she's fine."

"With your boyfriend."

"He's a good guy."

"One of them put you in jail, one was a monkey," Lily mutters as Robin and Regina return. "Not that I've done any better."

Emma doesn't mention how cute she was with Ruby a moment ago, that can wait. "Killian and your mom get along great. You've seen them be wind current nerds."

"They're worse than watching the weather channel," Lily agrees, but the hand on Emma's arm is tight. "She's okay?"

"She's okay." Emma smiles and now Henry's watching, and Roland and she's aware of the weight of that smile. 

"Hey guys," Robin begins. Regina's a step behind him, white, taut, but smiling. She's trying so hard to be happy and not show any worry that Emma can feel her magic vibrating. Her free hand is a fist and the other is firmly in Robin's. 

"What is it?" Henry asks. 

"Hi Papa," Roland adds. He leans back against Marian, still in his costume as a tiny Henry. 

"Well, I have some news."

Henry gets it, immediately. He's too old to think it's great like Roland does and there's a hint of worry in the line on his forehead. 

"What news?"

Robin crouches down to Roland's height. "You know how much you've been waiting for you sister to get here?"

"My baby!" he says, giggling. "My baby is here?"

"She's coming." 

Regina's hand rests on Robin's shoulder until Lily takes it, and there's this moment, the two of them, holding hands that happens behind Robin's head that just makes Emma smile. Having that family, trusting it, it's been so hard for Lily. 

"Really?"

"It takes a long time, sweetheart," Marian adds, also dropping down to his level. "When you came it took more than a day, so your sister won't be here today, but tomorrow, and it's a lot of work."

"And it hurts sometimes, but it's okay, we're going to be with her the whole time." 

"Mal is okay?"

"She's okay, she's home now, with Killian, and we're all going to go there."

"In a poof?"

"Probably in a car."

"I wanna go in a poof!" 

Lily crouches down next to him and grins. "Know what?"

"What?"

"How about if you and I go in a poof with your mama? We came here in cars so we have to take those back, but we could go in a poof, if you really wanted to."

"And Henry."

"Henry can come, sure," Lily agrees. "We just have to wait a bit, so the cars get home first." 

"We can't race?"

"We can't race today. Maybe next time."

"Is that all right?" Marian asks.

"Sure, people is fine." Lily sighs and Roland hugs her legs. "I can't do cars yet, but people is fine."

"I'll wait," Henry says, and there's something so adult in his voice that Emma hugs him. Then he goes to Regina and holding him finally makes her relax, a little. "We can go together."

"You okay driving?" Emma asks Regina as they put on their coats in the cloakroom to head out. "I can give David the keys to my car."

"It's fine."

"Hey," Robin nudges her. "It's okay."

"I should go right now," Regina says, flexing her fingertips. "I should be home with her."

"Regina."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she turns on Emma. "This is my--"

"Because she asked me not too."

"Why?"

"You were so happy." 

"Was," Regina corrects and she shudders. "I was happy, now I--"

"Maleficent is fine," Robin reminds her. "She's with Killian."

"She's with the pirate, of all people, what does he know about having a baby? He doesn't even have two hands."

"Hey, look, he held her hand all through the play."

"That's what I don't understand, this has been happening for hours and neither of you--"

"I just told Robin," Emma interrupts. "It was me."

"Why didn't you just tell me? Why didn't she?"

Emma sighs again, she fidgets with her car keys. "I think it wasn't comfortable admitting she was in labor here, not with my parents-- She's just a lot happier at home, and Killian's fine, Regina. They're fine."

Regina nods, slowly. Robin puts his arm around her back. She fishes in her pocket and hands Emma the keys to her Mercedes. "If I'm not travelling by magic, I'd rather you drove."

"Okay, I can do that." 

They sit wrapped together in the back seat of Regina's new Mercedes that seats five. Emma can't help thinking that they'll need a larger car now, maybe a minivan, which makes her smile as she pulls through the snowy streets of Storybrooke. Regina Mills with a minivan. Robin will probably get it. She can picture him as a soccer dad, dropping off Roland while the new little one watches from her car seat. Maybe the little dragon baby and Neal can play together. 

Regina's out of the car before it's even really stopped, letting the frigid air into the car, and Emma and Robin share a look through the rear view mirror. 

"In a way, it's her first child too," he suggests, still smiling. "I was a terrible bundle of nerves when Roland arrived. This is much calmer." He rests his hand on her back, as if sensing she needs the reassurance as they head in. Regina's boots sit abandoned in the foyer and Emma picks them up while listening for yelling. 

Nothing. 

Then laughter, genuine laughter. It's Killian and Maleficent, not Regina, but it's not yelling, screaming or crying. 

Emma tugs off her boots and leaves them in the closet. Robin's a step ahead of her, still in his heavy coat, and they hurry into the dining room. 

Regina stands just inside the doorway, hands on her hips. Maleficent and Killian stand on the far end of the table, surrounded by legos. All the legos in the house, probably, and considering Roland's fondness for them and how much Henry enjoys them, it's a lot. 

Maleficent leans on the back of the chair, and there's sweat on her forehead, but she was laughing. The flask sits on the table near Killian and he's holding a little lego something.

"The currents would not be like that with a bay like this."

"They would if the wind was prevailing from Westeros," Killian says, moving one of the little lego ships (they're ships, Emma realises). "Which is likely, considering the smaller landmass." 

"So they could come this way," Maleficent says, using her hand to guide the ships. Three other lego creations sit beside her and Emma recognises dragons and starts to chuckle. She knows this.

"That would follow," he says. 

What's really impressive is the island above the bay, and the pyramid because they've really gone to a lot of detail and they haven't been alone that long. Who knew they were artistic? Well, she knew Killian had an eye for things that were beautiful, and he pays attention, but Maleficent must have helped. 

"It's Slaver's Bay," Emma says. 

Regina glares at her, and Maleficent, and Killian, perhaps the most, which is a little unfair. "What are you doing?"

"Figuring out if the invasion of Slaver's Bay could have been repelled with only three dragons, depending on the wind currents on the day," Maleficent answers. She hands another little ship to Killian. "How was the reception?"

"Mal?"

"What?" Maleficent looks up from the ships and stands, hands on her lower back and her belly out in front of her. "Yes, I'm in labor, yes it hurts, but it only hurts every five minutes or so and the rest of the time has to be filled with something."

"You should sit--"

Killian shakes his head.

"What, pirate, you're a midwife now?" 

"Sitting down hurts," Maleficent explains. "We tried."

"We watched the last episode of _Game of Thrones_ , because we both enjoyed the battle, and Maleficent discovered she couldn't sit down during it, so she stood behind the sofa, and that worked, but then we started talking and realized that we had some things about the battle we wanted to work out."

"And you took all the legos in the house to do it?"

Maleficent blinks and Emma really admires how she can just stand there and stare at Regina as if what they've done makes total sense. 

Robin, however, can move and think at the same time. "How do you feel?"

"Fine," Maleficent says, accepting his outstretched hand. "It'll be fine for the next-"

"Two minutes," Killian offers, looking up from the phone they're using as a timer on the table. 

Emma smiles at him, because they've done so well. She's so proud. 

"I still don't know if the dragons would be able to get enough lift come down from the pyramid like that," Maleficent says, studying the model. Robin kisses her cheek, and his hand rests on her belly.

"Well, if the wind's from here for the ships-" he says, waving his hand, "What would that mean for flying?"

"How strong would the wind be?"

"These are heavy ships, war galleys, some of them have oars, so they could move against the wind," he says and their attention is still focused on the model.

"This is amazing," Emma says, slipping up behind him. Two empty mugs of tea also sit on the table, and there's some chocolate. "You didn't just argue about which house you'd be in?"

Killian looks at her, somewhat affronted. "I'm part of the free cities of Braavos and Maleficent is a Targaryen, how would we even argue?" 

"How was does a galley turn?" Robin asks.

"Why are we talking about this?" Regina says, drawing all of their attention. "You're having the baby."

"Not-" and Maleficent stops. She frowns and Robin's arms steady her. Her breath catches a little, but she can still talk through it. Emma doesn't envy her, she remembers this part. It hurts too much to do anything but the rest of the time it's fine. 

"Right now," she answers.

"Mal--"

"I needed to do something." 

" _This_?"

"This is very distracting," Killian says. He grins over the great pyramid and the rocks around them. "It took us nearly an hour, and we had to keep going back to the television to make sure we were getting it right."

"How does a war galley turn?" Maleficent asks him and there's a breath, just the two of them looking at each other, and Emma's chest swells. 

That's trust, even affection. Killian did this. He helped. 

"Poorly, if it's crewed by slaves, no motivation to do better than the minimum effort to keep from being whipped, a free crew would do better." He turns one of the little lego ships to demonstrate. "They'd have to turn at least this far to catch the wind, and it would not be quick."

"So a dragon--" 

Killian nods, and takes one of the dragons, the little green one, from in front of Maleficent and flies it down over the ship. "Could easily destroy one. How quickly does the fire breath recharge?"

"Breathe," Robin reminds Maleficent, who's gone tense and quiet. 

Regina rips off her coat and hangs it on one of the chairs and a moment later, she's beside her. "Is this really helping?"

"I can't think about this," Maleficent explains, her voice trembling. "It makes it worse." 

Regina raises an eyebrow, and Emma knows that skeptical look. "Toy ships."

"War galleys," Killian offers with a smile. "And dragons, it's really very technical." 

"Why didn't you say something?"

"You don't know anything about naval warfare, dear," Maleficent finishes with a sigh. "You'd be useless."

Emma has to swallow not to laugh. Robin doesn't bother. He kisses her temple and then looks at Regina. 

"Anything that helps, is good. It'll be a long time."

"Don't say that when I can hear you," Maleficent mutters. 

"If she burnt this one, could the dragon turn and catch this one as well?" Killian asks, drawing her attention back to the model. 

"Not that sharply," she says, catching her breath again. "More like this." 

Regina lifts her hands in the air and takes a step back. Robin follows her, touching her shoulders, whispering to her. 

Emma shouldn't watch them, so she lets Killian and tell her about their model. The tiny dragons are really cute, one white, one green and one black. They're much more realistic than the ones that come with the lego sets. 

"You made all of this without a pattern?"

"We're very creative," Killian jokes. He taps the phone with his hand when Maleficent nods at him. "We had time." 

"And you're timing contractions?"

"There's an intriguing time-keeping apparatus."

"App," Emma corrects. 

"Indeed, well, it seemed helpful."

Emma beams at him and waits for Maleficent to explain how they made the pyramid so quickly, when relative quiet is shattered by sound of magic. 

"That would be Lily, Henry, Roland and Marian," Emma offers. "They wanted to travel by magic." 

Maleficent rests her hands on the table, straightening up and smiling because it's difficult to explaining having a baby to very inquisitive five year old. 

Marian's voice carries through the house, reminding Roland to take off his boots and his coat. Even with the warnings, he's still first into the dining room, following by Henry, Marian and Lily. Lily remains back, quiet. 

"Legos!" Roland cries out, running to the table.

Killian stops him. "Hey, mate, slow down, they're set up to be something." He helps Roland pull out a chair and the explanation of what everything is begins. 

"Legos?" Henry asks. "Really?"

"I'll have you know this is the Battle of Slaver's Bay," Emma says, "which would mean something if we let you watch the show."

"I've seen most of it."

"Figures."

"How's having the baby?" he asks, casual, far more calm than any of the rest of them. 

"Alternatively painful and boring."

"Sorry, about that." Henry drops his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "We were talking back at the school and Marian suggested we might make C-O-O-K-I-E-S, because that would keep some of us very busy for awhile."

"I think that's a good idea."

"Mom should be okay with it," Henry finishes. "I'll go ask."

"We'll just stay until bedtime," Marian offers. "Lily said she could drive us home later, or use magic, whatever helps. I know it's stressful."

"It's fine," Maleficent insists before Emma can. "I'm hardly dying." 

"And Roland knows that" Marian adds. "I think he just wants to be involved. His sister means so much to him."

"He's very sweet." 

From where Emma stands she can watch the little digital countdown as the numbers creep downwards towards the next contraction. She hated that part, waiting for it to hurt again, wondering if it would hurt more. The guards weren't very sympathetic. She was a stupid kid who got herself in trouble. The nurses were better, but still cold. They were doing their jobs. 

Things are different. There's a nurse they'll call later, maybe Dr. Whale, but there's no shackles, no Wicked Witch coming to take her brother, no curse. This is just a baby and everyone's going to be okay. Emma can make sure of that. 

Robin and Regina return with Henry and Regina's smile still aches to look at. 

"Hey, Roland, wanna make cookies?"

It's hard to pull him away from legos but for cookies, he'll go with Henry to the kitchen. Robin kisses Regina's cheek, then she stands there, so still next to Emma while Robin and Maleficent talk. 

"It's easier for him," Emma says. "He's done this before." 

"I've read everything," Regina admits, dragging her hand through her hair. "And she's fine, she keeps saying she's fine."

"And she is."

"My heart's racing and I'm not even doing anything. I'm just standing here. Marian has the kids, Robin, Killian, they're looking after her I'm just here." 

"It takes a long time to have a baby," Emma promises her. "This is the part that's boring for five minutes and then only hurts for one. It's not really the important stuff yet. She'll need you."

"Thank you, but that sounds entirely self-centered."

"Hey," Emma begins, touching her carefully. "She loves you, loves Robin, loves the kids, and she knows she's loved and safe and this baby, gets to come into a room full of people who love her, right from the start. That's the best you could ever give her. You know what it's like not to have that, I know you do, but your baby? She's going to have a great start." 

Lily walks over to Regina and takes her hand. "You've got this, okay?"

Regina shivers and shuts her eyes. "Okay."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am never writing a scene with so many people in it again.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Regina and Robin help the Roland understand what it means to have a baby, Emma, Killian and Marian help Maleficent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is sappy and all about family. Enjoy!

"Regina wants to call Nurse Ratched," Robin says, rubbing his fingers up and down her spine. She could have him do that all night, but it hardly seems fair to ask. At least, not yet. 

Out of the three of them, Maleficent might understand least what's happening to her, but none of the benchmarks to summon Louise have occurred. "She won't come yet."

"It'll help her to call." He nuzzles her neck and she turns into him, like dancing, facing him. "You're doing wonderfully."

"I'm not doing much."

"You're calm, that's important. It's much more manageable when you're calm. If you're tense--"

"It'll hurt more," she repeats. He's right, of course, , but tension is more difficult to control than her breathing. It's easier here, home, safe. Robin understands that, and Regina still isn't sure. There's so much on her slim shoulders, Mal and the baby, Henry, Roland, Lily-- because she will worry about all of them without Robin's easy smile. 

He touches her belly, resting his hand over the baby's feet. They're up by her ribs, and it seems in moments that she'll swim her way down and out, drawn by whatever tide this is out into the world. 

"Tomorrow's a good birthday."

"If she comes tomorrow."

"I doubt she'll--" and he stops, chuckling. "I hope she doesn't drag you through all of tomorrow." Robin presses his mouth to her forehead, warm and sweet. "May I leave you with Emma?" 

She rubs her forehead against his, and he kisses her cheek. It's her dragon maneuver, and it never fails to make him smile. "I like Emma."

"I'll return."

Mal nods and he releases her. Her hands move to her lower back, and she rolls her hips from one side to the other. Something's unsettled, as if she needs to crawl free of this skin. She can't, the baby has firmly decided that she will be born of this body, without an egg, or her mother's flesh, to protect her. She'll be vulnerable. That sends cold fingers up her spine, because that's the fear, that's the tension she can't fight, as much as Robin wants her to. 

"Pacing helps," Emma says, drawing her out of her thoughts. "It helps get the baby down, and down's the goal." She has the sweetest, hopeful little smile. Maybe it's the savior side of her; she's always like the finding the sun over the clouds. 

"I usually try to fight against down," Mal teases. 

Killian extends his hand, which means she has to take a few steps to grab it. At least he's sturdy on his feet. "Perhaps in this case, you should make an exception." 

They circle the table, and she can see Robin's back through the doorway. His hand rests between Regina's shoulders and she has the phone to her ear. Louise will calm her. She's good like that. She knows what words from this world Regina needs to hear, like blood pressure and dilation. 

Emma offers her other hand when Mal stops walking. They're not Robin, not Regina, but they're steady. Phantom bands of fire wind across her belly, creeping from her back and burning their way outward. She can breathe through it, can form words, doesn't have to gasp, but it is definitely pain now, no longer discomfort. 

"How would the sun and the water affect the wind?" Killian asks her when she drifts.

"Depends on how warm the sea is," she answers. Her breath shivers in her chest and she has to look at him, at Emma, to drag herself back. 

"How warm is the sea in a tropical land?"

She gasps, and inhaling stings. "I lived on a snow-covered mountain, dear." 

"Cheeky," Killian says. His grin does distract her for a moment. "Think. You must have visited lands that were warmer." 

Nodding, she racks her memory. "Updrafts are unpredictable over a warm sea. Difficult to- steer- but--" She can do this. It's answering a question. "Altitude is easier to maintain. Almost too easy." 

"There you go," he says, and it's not just the question that he's excited about. It must be ending, retreating until it can taunt her again in the next few minutes. "You're all right." 

"You're doing great," Emma adds with a squeeze of her hand. "I think your distraction is a great idea," she continues with a tilt of her hand towards the lego masterpiece. "The first time we watched this episode, someone was all up in arms about how the ships weren't right."

Killian nods and smiles shyly, then rights one of the downed war galleys. "Having that many ships in such a small bay considering how bloody it would be to get them out again was hubris." He grins at Maleficent because that was one of the arguments that started them off in the first place. "Overconfidence."

"And it got them killed," she adds. 

"Exactly," Killian finishes. He knocks over another ship, turning the bay into a graveyard of tiny sailing vessels. "Dragons win."

Bowing her head in pride, she glances at Robin's back in the doorway. Regina wanted to call Louise, and Robin's with her because she's definitely more concerned than anyone else right now. Mal misses his hands though, they were warm. Without the puzzle of wind currents and flying down to rain fire on the fleet below, her mind drifts and reminds her how heavy the baby is in her hips. Apparently that's a good thing, but it means her back aches in between contractions and sings livid with pain during them. 

"What can we do?" Emma asks. She's so earnest, this saviour. 

"You don't have to do anything, dear," she promises. Everyone wants to help but it's difficult to know what will help, if anything. These contractions are relentless, if still, thankfully, beneath the threshold of what she can handle. 

"Can you keep walking around?" Emma asks, guiding her hand from the table. "That helps." 

"We've circled the table a fair amount," Killian says, offering his hand. He watches her and as if sensing the expectation in his face, pain flares from her back and wraps itself around her belly like stinging grains of sand, turning molten as it reaches the front. 

"Steady."

"Hey."

At least neither of them nags her about breathing. Maybe she's doing it. Being touched comes with a warmth she craves, as if she can't get enough of their body heat. Emma's free hand, the one not crushed in her own, rubs her forearm where her blouse clings to the sweat of her skin. 

"After this one, Marian and I will help you change, okay?"

Regina has the same trick, the command buried in a question. 

"Okay."

Shutting her eyes and shifting her hips, she misses the distraction of the puzzle, of tiny dragons and fragile ships. Pain crests and fades, and in its wake that softness surges. The part of her who doesn't want to let go of them fills the singed space. 

"That was longer than the last one."

"Thank you, captain." 

He strokes her arm, almost unaware of the gesture. "Is longer a good thing?" 

She could ask Emma the same question. Everything she read and listened to seems to melt like snowflakes in her thoughts. Her mind can face the moment, and perhaps the next contraction, but the rest of it has begun to fade. 

"Yeah," Emma promises. "Longer is progress. Killian, can you make cookies with the boys for a little while so Marian can help us?"

He nods. Mal squeezes his hand before he leaves her, because he was an anchor when she needed one. Killian winks, perhaps at her, or Emma. 

She sways and Emma's hands are on her arms. "I've got you." Her green eyes fill Mal's vision. 

"I used to feel almost normal between them."

"It doesn't hurt now, does it?" 

"No, it's--" she doesn't have words. There aren't words. She isn't in charge of this. The baby is and her needs are confusing. "It's like moulting scales, but I can't." 

"I've never moulted scales," Emma says. She releases one of her arms to move Maleficent's hair from her neck. It clings to her skin. When did she get so damp?  "We'll do something about your hair too." 

Regina's voice carries, sharper than the boys laughing in the kitchen. Mal can't make it out, her hearing has become muffled, as if her senses are pulling inwards. All of her wants to coil around this child, to keep her safe, but that won't work. It didn't keep Lily safe. 

"Killian says it's time to get you into something more comfortable." Marian dries her hands on a dish towel as she walks towards them. "I think he can survive getting cookies in the oven. Roland can only eat so much cookie dough before he'll be full and start putting cookies on the tray." Marian hangs the towel over the back of the chair and smiles. "And he's half-asleep anyway."

It must be hours past his bed time. "He should go to bed."

"He will," Marian promises. "His sister arriving is a special night. He's helping and that's important to him." She slips her arm around Maleficent's back, guiding her arm over her shoulders. "Come on, let's get you upstairs and out of your fancy clothes." 

Regina's voice rises again in the other room, as does Lily's and she can't hear what they're saying. 

"Wait." She almost has a moment to hear them, but that desire fades, because she can't listen through the swelling pain of the next contraction. 

Emma circles in front of her, touching her shoulder. "It's all right. We're right here, just breathe."

"Can you walk through it?" 

Mal almost laughs, because she's limped home with bleeding wings. This, this is at least purposeful. "Yes."

"We have you," Marian says, all firm at her side. "All you have to do is walk upstairs, just look at Emma." 

Emma's smiling face nods to her. "We've got you."

She's always liked fire, but this particular creeping pain is not a type she enjoys. "What is Regina upset about?" 

"Regina?" Emma repeats.

"I can hear her--"

"She was speaking with your midwife. Ratched," Marian says. "When I passed them, Lily was concerned that you weren't going to the hospital." 

"It's too early," Emma says and their eyes meet. Then she remembers. "But you're not going at all, sorry." 

Lifting her knees to climb the stairs is complex, in this moment, but her legs hold her. Marian steadies her hips and all she was to do is walk towards Emma. Focus on that. Don't worry about Regina and Lily, but--

"Lily- Lily thinks I should go."

"Why?" Marian asks.

Mal stops, holding the rail and looks down at her. Her expression perfectly encompasses what she feels about the thought. They stare at each other, and the smouldering fades again. She sighs, relieved for the moment. "I don't know." 

"Lily grew up here," Emma reminds her, reaching for her hand. "It's what people do here. You go to the hospital when you have a baby."

"This house is a marvel compared to the tent where Roland was born." Marian follows them into the bedroom, and Emma heads for the closet. Marian eyes the windows and for a moment her eyes linger on the bed. She starts to blush as Mal watches her, and she looks down. Mal reaches for her chin and lifts it. 

"This must be strange for you."

Marian wraps her hand around Mal's and smiles so easily. "No, no, I was just thinking that I had not seen a bed that large, even though the beds here are all far beyond I had ever imagined, and they're never lumpy. You don't have to stuff them with straw. They're already marvels, and it just makes sense that you'd have the largest one."

"Thank you."

Patting her hand, Marian tilts her head. "For what?"

"For being my first friend in this world, even though Robin and I--" 

"Hush." Marian starts on the buttons of the cuff of Mal's sleeve. "Robin being with you was easy after the qu-" she pauses and corrects herself, but the smile remains. "Regina. You're all happy. That's a good thing. That's what the little one needs, to know she's loved." 

Emma smiles at her over Marian's shoulder. Her green eyes soft and warm as she helps Marian strip off Mal's blouse. She stands still as they peel the silk from her skin, holds tight to Emma while Marian removes her trousers. 

"The midwife who came to help with Roland was an ancient woman, tiny and hunched with hands like old leather. Robin kept joking that she was a fairy woman when he thought she couldn't hear him. She left him the cutest little carving of a fairy shoe, just to make him wonder." 

Emma chuckles, guiding Mal's arms out of her bra. That too is sweat-soaked and without it her breasts rest heavy on her belly. Wrapping her arms over them to keep them from aching, Mal catches Emma's flush as she looks away.

"What?"

"I uh- haven't seen anyone naked in a really long time, since I was in- well, prison, you know," Emma answers, stammering. "Other than my brother, and Killian, and--"

Mal blinks at her, and the thought arrives and passes that she should ask about why Emma saw anyone naked in prison. Prison is an unpleasant thing, and Emma's already so tentative. 

"I don't think she minds," Marian offers while Emma flushes deep red. "She's always naked as a dragon." 

"If I objected to you dressing me, now would not be the time to mention it." 

"Told you," Marian says, smirking. It takes Emma a moment longer, but she stops looking past Mal and meets her eyes for a moment, then she has to look away again. Like Lily, the world outside hurt her deeply, and there's so much Mal might never understand. 

Emma's eyes widen, but she continues to help Marian guide the nightgown over Mal's arms, then her shoulders. They let it fall around her. "My stretch marks were purple."

"Stretch marks?"

"These." Marian rests her hand on Mal's belly, touching the funny silver lines Regina's always tracing with sweet-smelling cream. "They call them stretch marks."

"I don't--" Fire is meant to be her ally, not this creeping sort of torture. Yet it licks outward from her spine and wraps around, turning her belly hard beneath Marian's hand.

"That hurts," Marian says, her voice dropping, softening. "I can feel that, breathe." Her hands rest flat against Maleficent's belly, cooler than her skin. 

Emma grabs her hand when she grasps at her, fingers like claws. "It's okay."

"Emma?" Regina's voice cuts through the smoke in Mal's head. Footsteps follow, racing up the stairs while she pants her way through. 

"Marian?"

"We're here," Emma replies. "In the bedroom." 

Halting in the doorway, Regina takes them all in, sweeping the room with her eyes , frantic, before she's just there, arms on hers, directly in her vision. "Did your water break? What happened?"

"She was just sweaty. No waters yet," Marian answers. Something passes between her and Regina, some glance that Mal can't read. "We would have gotten you." 

Emma shifts her hand to Regina's shoulder, and takes a step back. 

"They're strong," Marian says, lifting her hands from her belly and guiding down the weightless nightgown. "No more false alarms."

"That's good," Mal says aloud, almost surprised at her own voice. She can speak again. It's passed. 

Regina pushes up from her heels and kisses her cheek,  touches Mal's face, taking the pulse of through her fingertips. "Louise says it still might be hours."

"I know."

"You have a choice to make, we try and slow this down so you can sleep, hot bath, glass of wine-"

Emma swallows a laugh because Regina's face is too precious and she doesn't even know about the rum. Mal's not going to tell her. 

"Or we walk, try to get the baby's head down, wait for your water to break, then that's the hard part." Her expression darkens at the end.  She doesn't want Mal to be apprehensive, but Louise would have told her what told Mal, labor is a process. It can take more than a day, especially with the first baby. It can be exhausting, even miserable. Regina wants to protect her, but this is her fire to walk through.

"You might want to have slept when you get there," Regina continues. "Think about it."

"You're not going to offer to sleeping curse me until the baby arrives?"

"Would it help?" 

Her fragile world begins with Regina's smile and radiates outward, graining strength. She kisses her forehead, clumsy and full of affection. Her heart swells warm in her chest. 

"I doubt it."

"Lily-" and that still pains her, because Regina sounds both concerned and annoyed. "Lily worries that you don't understand what you refused by not going to the hospital."

"I'll remind her."

Regina touches her cheek, then, like Marian, her hands drop to her belly. Right now it's only firm and heavy while the hot iron waits to creep back in. "You don't need to."

She shuts her eyes, shifting, squirming because perhaps if she stands a little differently, her hips will be less uncomfortable, but nothing works. "The hospital option was discussed and weighed, I made my choice, dear."

"Lily worries."

"As do you."

"We love you."

She smiles, soft and weary and Marian has to be the one to suggest they go back downstairs, because Mal would stay here, wrapped in them and the quiet. 

"You don't have to decide right now," Regina assures her. "Just think about what you need." 

Emma clears her throat before they leave the bedroom, but she has to touch Regina to get her attention. "I gave Maleficent rum at the play, to slow her contractions down. I don't know if it helped much."

"They were softer," Mal says, watching Regina's expression shift. "For a time." 

"A little bit of alcohol slows down oxytocin," Emma says, and the last word is something modern, and she can't remember what it is. "Picked that up during my baibondspersons days. It was useful a couple times." 

Regina's eyebrows are high, haughty. "You gave her rum?"

"She wanted to-"

" _ I _ wanted to watch the end of the play, Regina," Mal finishes for Emma, trying to draw Regina's ire. "Emma's treatment is in accordance with what Louise suggested." 

Regina presses her dark lips together and she flicks her eyes to Emma before she looks back to Mal. "You should have told me." 

"No, you would have worried about nothing instead of watching Henry's great success."

Regina removes her hands, stiffening her shoulders. "This is not nothing."

"It's just pain, Regina, pain is endurable."

"What she means is that you don't have to endure it alone," Emma offers. She touches Regina's back, keeping her from retreating, and Marian too nods and smiles. 

Reaching for Regina, she tugs her in. Regina takes the step towards her as if it aches, then they touch and Mal holds her as close as the baby will allow. "I'm not alone. I haven't been alone for a moment. Killian's been with me, and Emma, Robin, Marian, and you, dear. You've been a heartbeat away, if I needed you." 

Regina shudders, and for a moment perhaps it is her who needs to be reminded to breathe. "I want you to be safe."

"I am." 

The sorcerer is gone, Henry is the author now and he'd never let anyone hurt his sister, unless Rumplestiltskin has some nefarious plan for this baby, which she doubts, because he has his own life to put into place, there is no one in Storybrooke or any other realm who would threaten this baby. Though, she never would have guessed that Snow White and her prince wanted Lily, there's no one to manipulate them now. 

When Regina pulls back, Mal strokes her dark hair away from her eyes and smiles. "I am more safe than I have ever been. I have a family now, your family, Robin's family. That's something I've never had." 

"We'll protect you, that's what family does," Emma promises. She pats Regina's shoulder, as if she sense how much Regina needs it. "Especially little dragon baby here."

"Let me fix your hair," Marian says, fussing behind her. Emma teases her about not being able to reach, then they guide her to the bed, asking her to sit on the edge while Marian braids her hair back out of the way. 

Emma and Marian talk easily, about the little bone charms the midwife put in Marian's hair when Roland was born, and how one of the nurses in prison was Emma's favorite because she was gentle. Emma's expression dims when they talk about babies, because she gave Henry away to another home; she never held him. He must have been ten before she hugged him. 

She should be thinking of other things, of what she wants to do about bringing this child into the world, and instead she hugs Emma tight, cradling her because like Lily she was lost, and like Mal she lost her child, and she has to hug her. Even if it startles her so that she stiffens, then relaxes. 

"What?"

"You brought us home, all of us."

"It's hormones," Regina murmurs, helping Mal back to her feet. "She's clingy."

Emma smiles, squeezing her hands. "It's okay. I can be hugged." 

Protesting that she can still speak seems like too much effort, so she follows them back downstairs, breathing with Regina through the next contraction. Regina's tiny without her heels, but steady as the cliffs along the sea. 

Warm sugar and chocolate fill the air, making it sweet and heavy, as they head downstairs. The cookies must be out because Roland's been chased out of the kitchen and he meets them, bouncing, at the bottom of the stairs.

Marian catches him, stops him before he can run to Regina, and Mal, because he wants to be close.

"I want pyjamas too!"

"And you shall have them," Marian promises. "When we go home. With Henry." 

"I want to stay."

"I know, sweet boy," Robin says, ruffling his hair. "Lily will bring you back as soon as your sister is here, and you can hold her."

Lily's smile has that tenderness in it she saves for her brothers. "We'll even go in a poof, I promise."

"In a big poof?"

Lily demonstrates a big poof with her hands, eyes wide and playful, and Roland laughs. "You, me, Henry, your mom, all in a big poof." 

"It'll be fun," Henry adds. "I like traveling by magic."

"Me too!" Roland grins up at him and Lily. "Okay." 

Standing so close to the boys and Lily, Mal's acutely aware of her breathing when fire flares out again. She's slightly behind Regina, who hears the change immediately and turns, then Robin has her hands, and both of them a walk her into the dining room while Emma and Marian stay with the children. 

"I scared Lily." 

"You did not," Robin insists. He runs his hand along her spine, pressing against the growing discomfort. "Here, put your fingers around her bones, it always hurts down here. Like that."

She sighs, tears stinging in her eyes, because that does help. Robin steadies her shoulders, letting her hold tight to him. With firm hands, Regina takes over pressing along her spine, countering the pressure. 

"Lily is fine," he continues. "It's just a new thing for her. It's hard watching your mother suffer."

"How will she handle it when it gets worse?" Everyone keeps saying it'll get worse, and there's an edge to the contractions that wasn't here an hour ago. Soon they'll have teeth. "I can't help her."

Regina keeps rubbing her back. "We can, we're here. You worry about this baby, we'll worry about the rest of the kids." 

Robin smiles at that, then kisses Mal's cheek. "See? We can do this." 

She nods, half-smiling back with gritted teeth. "This hurts."

"I know," Robin kisses her again.  “Swear.” 

“What?” It’s a new suggestion. 

He runs his hand down her back, guiding Regina's fingers so she can press hard where that spearpoint pain throbs. He knows it now. “Curse, it helps.”

She stares at him, trying to breathe slowly, forcing herself to be calm. Robin’s calm, of course he’s calm, he doesn’t have gremlins clawing at him from the inside with their cold little claws. “At whom?”

“The universe, the snow, me, if it helps. Not Regina, of course.”

“Not you,” and she cuts herself off, because it’s sharp now, the gremlins working in unison. “F--"

"Cookies are done!" Roland bounces into the room, a cookie in each hand. 

Mal swallows the word he shouldn't hear, and again, Regina's in front of her in a moment, hiding her face. 

Roland's face falls, darkening with worry. He puts the cookies on the table, their sweetness forgotten. "What's wrong?" 

"Having a baby hurts, son." Robin crouches down, offering his arms. "We're taking good care of her." 

"Why does it hurt?" 

Mal raises her eyebrows and mutters that it is a fair question. Regina holds her face in her hands. "It's almost done."

She drops her head against Regina's shoulder, shivering. " _ This _ one." There will be another, maybe hundreds more before the little flame burns her way free. 

"Why does it have to hurt, Papa?" 

"Because it's hard work. Like running a very long way or cutting down trees. Sometimes that hurts, especially if you have to do it for a long time." He takes his son's hands, then hugs him. "But you made cookies, and that helps, and we know you're a very brave boy, and your sister will need you to be brave, because she's just a baby."

"Robin?" It's over, and her legs are weak, but she can talk to the little one. Maybe Roland will listen to her. 

"See, she's all right," Robin promises, guiding his son closer. 

Roland holds up his arms, wanting to be held, and she can, slowly, hug him. It takes Regina's help to get down to her knees and hold the little boy who carries so much worry. 

"I'm sorry you have to go, little one. Having your sister is going to take a long time, and we'll be up very late, and I'll need your Papa, and Regina. Lily will bring you right back and you can meet your sister the moment she's here. I promise." 

"Okay." He nods, resting his little hands on her belly. "Be gentle, baby." 

"She is," Regina promises him. "She doesn't mean to hurt Mal." 

"Can you have a cookie now?"

"Yes, dear." 

Roland runs off and returns with his cookies. There's melted chocolate on his hands, and she kisses it off. 

"You made good cookies." 

"Killian helped us, and Lily. Henry did the recipe."

"Henry measures well," Regina says. "He used to make cookies with me when he was your age." 

"When Henry was five?"

"When Henry was five." 

Sugar swims in her mouth, and Mal's not sure if she can, if she should swallow it, but she does. "They're very good."

"I want you to be okay."

"I am okay," she promises him, touching his nose. Mal looks past his head, at Regina, Robin, Marian, Henry, Emma, Killian-- all the lovely, gentle faces surrounding them and her gaze stops on Lily, in the doorway. 

Sweet, tentative Lily, who never asked to get her mother back on the eve of her sister's arrival. Who never had the chance to know her before her sister was coming, before the headaches and the nausea and the whole tangled mess. She can't protect her, can't save her from having to watch what's coming. Can't hold her tight and make it all easy, like it was supposed to be. There will never be a moment where she'll hold Lily like this baby, uncomplicated, pure, yet she loves them both with all of her heart, with a fire stronger than anything she's known. 

Mal smiles at her, watches her beautiful daughter and promises again, that she is all right. "I'm with my family, and that's the best place in the world." 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys leave with Marian, labor progresses, and Robin, Regina and Lily get Mal through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many many thanks to my 'here read this' folks. I adore you all so much.

Roland has eaten enough cookies that he smells of chocolate when he kisses Robin goodnight. Robin stands up, rubs his head and smiles down at him. "Sleep well, because you'll be a big brother tomorrow, and that's a very great responsibility."

"You'll be like me."

Roland looks up at Henry, eyes wide. "Really?"

"Or Lily, she kind of has the most responsibility," Henry says, tilting his head towards her. "She's the biggest, and it's your last night to be the smallest."

"It is!"

"What should we do?"

"What a movie!"

"A movie!" Henry smirks. "What movie?" He knows as well as Robin does that Roland will never stay awake that long. Through the door into the living room, he can see Regina slip away from Mal as Lily takes over walking circles with her.

Regina's been with Mal long enough that there's some of her dark hair clings to itself, damp with sweat, and her eyes have a sheen to them. This is hard for her, because she's so demanding of herself. Maleficent is fine. She knows that, but whatever Regina does won't be up to her standards. She can't make the pain of labor evaporate or help the baby arrive any faster than her time.

"Take care of her, Mom." Henry says, before enveloping his mother in a very tight hug. He's as tall as her now, because her shoes are long gone. She folds into him, and sighs, taking him in. There are hints of the man he'll be in his face already, and Henry wants to look after her. Robin smiles at him and nods. They'll talk. Regina will relax, and the baby will come. It's intimidating, and exhausting and will only be more so once Mal's tired and really starts to feel it. Regina will have to save some of her empathy for that moment, when it counts.

"And yourself, okay?" Henry finishes, letting go enough to squeeze her arms. "Don't worry too much."

Emma and Killian return from starting the car, already wrapped in thick coats and they tease Roland and start getting him into his coat as well. After one last touch of Henry's face, Regina goes to help, shaking her tears away and smiling. Emma sees them, and touches her shoulder and Robin can't help smiling a little at the gesture.

Everyone's looking out for each other. He grabs Henry's shoulder, then hugs him, tight, because the lad is still shorter than him and still enough of a boy to need to be reassured. "Thank you for looking after your brother tonight."

"Of course." Henry mutters into his shoulder. "It'll be fun. We'll keep him busy until he falls asleep." Henry's hands rest on his back. "How long do you think it'll take?"

Robin shrugs and gives him an extra squeeze. "Could be morning, could be afternoon, could be an hour after you leave. It's hard to tell. Roland's birth took awhile. I remember how nervous I was."

"Like Mom?"

"Worse than your mother," Robin promises. "Don't worry. I've got her, she's got me, together we've got Mal. It'll be all right."

Henry studies him, searching his face as if reading him like one of his books. Eventually he nods, and some of the worry leaves his face. "Okay." He grabs his coat, and starts putting it on before he returns to Robin. "When will you know how it's going to go? What if something goes wrong?"

Robin watches him zip up his coat and catches Regina's worried glance behind Henry's head. "Most things that could go wrong are things that Louise, Nurse Ratched, would have caught before we got this far, and Mal's appointment three days ago was good."

"So it's just waiting?"

He nods, and shrugs again. "It'll go faster once her water breaks, but it's harder, so it might go easier on Mal if that holds off a bit longer. Your mother and I are here, and Lily, and Emma and Killian are coming back, so Mal is as safe as we can make her, so is the baby."

"And Lily will bring you back." Emma promises, punching his shoulder. "Right away, while your sister's still all slimy."

"Maybe not that quick," Henry says with a little wince.

"Slimy?" Roland asks, eyes wide and Emma bends down to explain how babies are born a little wet.

Robin chuckles as Emma and Killian take him and Henry outside. Henry sneaks a last, quick hug with his mother, then he's gone. Regina stares at the door, then turns her back to it, facing the living room where Lily and Mal are waiting for them.

Taking her hand, he wraps their fingers together. "All she needs is you," he reminds her. "You know that."

Regina nods, but it's an empty reflex. "Right."

Marian emerges from the living room and grabs her coat, hurrying into that and her boots. Her gaze tracks upward from their joined hands and flicks from Robin's face to Regina's. "Her contractions are much closer."

That draws another nod from Regina, and her lips thin. "Yes."

"And she's getting tired."

"We'll look after her."

"I know, I know," Marian smiles at them both, bright and hopeful, pulling on her winter hat over her dark hair. "I'm so excited for the three of you, having a baby. They're so sweet when they're that little. All wrinkly and sleepy."

"Roland slept constantly." Robin squeezes Regina's hand, just in case. "Barely even woke up long enough to nurse."

"She's doing so well." Marian zips up her coat, then stops and looks directly at Regina. "I know it's intimidating, Robin was terrified-"

That thudding of his heart while Marian cried into his shoulder is fresh in his mind, still. "I was, actually."

"And he was wonderful, as you will be. I know we've had our differences--"

"You don't have to-" Regina insists and Marian shakes her head.

"I do, I really think I do, because I'm used to hating you. I hated you, thought you were this terrible queen so detached from reality that you couldn't have been human, to do the things you did, and then, somehow, my husband, the best man I've known, fell in love with you while I was dead, and I should hate you."

"I'm--"

"I don't," Marian says, stopping Regina's inevitable apology. "I don't hate either of you. Maybe I'm a little jealous, sometimes, because you're happy, and I am not part of that happiness anymore, but my husband and the woman I once despised are having a baby with a woman who's one of my closest friends, and I'm at peace with that. I'm thrilled for you all, because this is wonderful."

Regina shudders, releasing her breath. "Marian, I'm sorry."

"I know." She stares at her mittens for a moment and looks up with a smile. "In the past, we were all different. Now, I think I'd like us to be friends."

He takes a step forward and reaches for Marian, forgetting himself. They don't hug. At least, they haven't. This time, they do.

"I know you'll be wonderful for Maleficent," she whispers. "You were for me."

Marian and Regina face each other, and then Marian tugs off her mitten and offers her hand. "You don't have to be perfect, just be there. That's all she'll remember."

They share another look, and Robin's grateful down to the pit of his stomach that he loved Marian when he did, because Roland came from that, and bringing him into the world was something they did well.

"Thank you," he says, when Regina's overwhelmed.

"Come back," Regina adds, her voice soft and almost shy. "When the baby's here. Come back, I'd like you to meet her, and I know Mal would."

"And I'll get to go in a poof," Marian says, making her eyes wide like Roland's. "All right." They shake hands gently, then Marian puts back on her mitten. "I'll see you soon."

When she's gone, Regina stands still, startled quiet, and he hugs her, holds her close and whispers how much he loves her for all that she is and has become. Regina clings tight to him, relaxing in his arms as if against his chest she can finally let go of some of the tension she's been carrying.

They stand there, still enough that they hear the car pull away with Marian and the boys. He kisses her temple, and then holds her again. "I've never felt anything like the joy I did when I held Roland," he murmurs. "He was so tiny and somehow the most important thing in the world."

"I thought Henry was small when I got him, but a newborn--" Regina sighs again, breathing him in. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Everything," she says, pulling back and smiling. Regina blinks until her tears are held back.

He kisses her forehead, rubbing her shoulders. "Go change."

"Hmmm?"

"You're still dressed for the play."

She looks down at her rumpled purple shirt, and then up at him. "I didn't--"

"I know. Go change, and then I'll go. Wear something comfortable. I'll stay with Lily and Mal."

Regina rubs her fingers against his hand, then nods and heads upstairs. Robin slips through the kitchen on his way to the living room, where Lily and Mal are holed up. He collects water, more of the cookies the boys made, and puts the kettle on for tea. Tea always helps.

In the living room, Mal leans against the mantle, her hands flat on the marble. Lily stands beside her, her hand on her back, rubbing up and down. Their heads rest together, Lily's darker hair falling free in contrast with Mal's blonde braid. The sharper edge in Mal's breathing carries in the pitch of her moan as he approaches them. Lily's eyes meet his, dark with concern, and so much like Regina's.

He touches Mal's shoulder first, then leans in, close to her face. "Hey."

She tilts her head towards him, nuzzling his cheek without speaking. This one must be ending, because there's relief in the way her face has smoothed. He adds his hand to her back, rubbing up and down.

"You're doing great."

Lily's concern turns to a glare behind her mother's head. "Her damn contractions almost on top of each other."

It takes her a breath to protest, but Mal does with a weary smile. "Lily's exaggerating."

"Mom--"

"I'm fine." She pushes off of the mantle and takes a step towards him, then Mal's in his arms, radiating wet heat against his chest. "All the water's still inside."

He sways with her, rocking her ever so slightly. "Sometimes it doesn't break until the end," Robin says, rubbing her arm. "Regina's not worried that it hasn't broken yet. "

"She's not?" Mal lifts her eyes to look at him. "Seems like that ruins the fun."

"This isn't fun," Lily objects.

Mal straightens, taking more of her own weight, as if testing her legs. She studies him, focusing, then looks past him at Lily. "It has been."

Lily folds her arms over her chest. "It hurts."

"Sweetheart, that's is not enough disqualify tonight from being pleasant. The play, your brothers, finally understanding that battle--"

"Seriously?"

"It's been bothering me for weeks."

"That?"

"Of course."

"We're not watching television anymore."

The argument stops as the next contraction starts, Mal rests her head against his shoulder and Lily's exasperation fades into worry. She's much taller than Marian was, warmer against his chest, but Robin remembers this, the shuffling and swaying, breathing together, waiting for Roland. He came slowly, but with little agony. Marian kept herself busy, and perhaps that's why he understands the lego battle more than Lily or Regina. Birthing a child takes time, and is both exhausting and dull.

Lily are Regina are both so concerned that the dullness hasn't even sunk in for them yet. Their time is full of worry, so perhaps they don't notice. He whispers his affection into Mal's damp hair and slowly, this wave ends, leaving her panting against him.

"Is it still better standing? Do you need to sit down?"

Mal slowly looks up, eyes glazed with effort and exhaustion. Answering that question is too difficult. He walks her to the sofa and guides her down, crouching in front of her. Lily's right, the fire draws her attention almost better than his face. He rubs her belly, keeping his touch gentle between contractions. Mal guides his hands to the baby's feet, pointed firmly upward at her breasts.

"She's here."

"And upside down," he says. "That's good."

"Sometimes it's like she's trying to stand up, force her way out."

"Almost makes you wish she was an egg like her sister."

Mal leans into his hand and he strokes her face, brushing fingertips through the sweat clinging to her hairline.

The kettle starts to whistle in the other room. Lily touches his shoulder. "I'll get it."

"I set up the mug. The blue one by the stove."

"Okay, I got it."

With Lily out of the room, Mal winces, her forehead tightens and she chases her breath. "Hey, you don't have to hide this from her. She's okay."

"You say that."

"This is new for her, dragon."

She smirks, and it's an actual smile. Rising to his knees, he kisses her. "You're doing so well."

Mal catches him, holds his face close. "I love you, thief."

"Reformed," he jokes. Instead of tightening, her face stills, softens. "That's it. That's it, relax, don't fight it."

Robin runs his hands over her bare arms, her shoulders, and rubs his right hand over her neck, gently, back and forth. "The snow's really coming down, big fat flakes, the ones that whisper. It'll be thick, heavy on the trees. I remember how beautiful it was in the old world, until the roofs caved in and we had to cram together in the caves and wait it out where it was cold, wet, miserable.

"But here? Here we sit by the fire and watch it fall." He runs his fingers down her neck, then back up. "It's so safe here. Easy. The houses are warm; the roof never leaks."

"My castle didn't leak."

He chuckles and kisses her again. "Of course not."

Mal looks up, past him. "Regina."

Robin turns, Regina stands in the doorway, Lily beside her holding the tea. She's in pyjamas now, all soft and vulnerable with her hair pulled back. She holds her phone, sending some message. "Emma wants to pick up Nurse Ratched now, before the snow gets any worse."

"Sure," he answers.

Lily presses her lips together and he recognizes that stubborn look but isn't sure what it refers too. This house is a marvel, they're safe. Louise will be here, Regina, and Emma. Other than the Dark One, there's no greater magic in Storybrooke. Even if-and Robin doesn't want to think of the ifs- Mal is safe. She couldn't be safer.

Regina sends another message and leaves her phone on the coffee table. Her smile's softer now, easier, as if she shed some of her fear with her makeup and clothing. She runs her fingers through his hair and then drags over the footstool. She sits on that, putting herself in front of Mal, brushing her face with gentle hands.

Lily brings over the tea. She doesn't have clothing here. She'll have to wear her jeans and the black shirt she wore for the play. She's too tall for Regina's things, some of his would fit, or her mother's.

Robin takes the tea from her hand and sets it on the coffee table next to Regina's little black phone. "Come on," he says to Lily. "I know where you can get some pyjamas."

Lily looks at her mothers, wrapped together hands on each other, heads bowed. They never had this, with her, never waited for her arrival the way they do now. Her sister will arrive surrounded by family, while she was alone. Lost.

No wonder Emma has been so protective; so careful.

She accompanies him to the stairs, looking over her shoulder, hesitating. "How much longer?"

"Hours," he says. Staring at him, Lily hesitates when he offers his hand to her. When she takes it, he pulls her in, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. She resists, holding back, and then she squeezes him, holding him tight. "It's all right."

"You keep saying that."

"It is."

"But she's--"

"She's fine." He walks her into their bedroom and digs through the closet until he finds a suitable pair of Mal's pajamas. Like Regina, most of hers match top and bottom, all silky. Hers are softer colors, grey and pale blue, unlike Regina's purples. Eventually he finds the pair he's looking for. Something Henry bought for Mal's birthday, adorned with tiny black dragons from some film Mal only found slightly inaccurate.

"Here, these are more like you."

Lily nods, with a faint little smile, and disappears into the bathroom to change. Robin strips his shirt and pulls on one of his oldest tank tops and a soft pair of flannel pants. He tosses his clothes in the hamper, removing his socks. The neat pile of pads, sheets and waterproofing for the bed sits in the corner, folded and waiting. Regina thought the guest bedroom might be easier, but if Mal feels safer in their room. They can do it here, or downstairs. It's much less messy than the straw.

When Lily emerges from the bathroom, clothes wrapped in her hands, she looks at him, then at the pile in the corner. "It's messy, isn't it?"

"In the old world, we covered the floor with straw. Here, it's a little more civilized, but yeah, it's a little messy."

She clutches her clothes to her chest, like a shield. "Is there blood?"

"Some."

"Will she scream?"

Robin shrugs and reaches for Lily's clothes. She stares at her hands, then passes them over so he can set them on the dresser. "Marian cursed like a sailor."

"You already left Mom with a pirate."

"Who took good care of her." He squeezes her shoulder. "She's okay."

Headlights in the driveway draw their attention, and they head down. Louise comes in first, wrapped in a coat, hat and scarf. Snow coats her clothing, sticking to the wool. She stamps the snow off of her feet while Killian follows, holding something wooden and dark, some kind of chair. Last is Emma, carrying a box of pizza, also covered in snow. It's hot, and when he smells it, he remembers how long ago dinner was, and cookies can only go so far.

"Figured we needed to eat, and the pizza place hadn't closed yet. It's not New York good, but it's still hot."

The wood is a low chair, and when Killian sets it on the floor, Robin remembers the similar one that the midwife brought to their village when Roland came. Maybe that will work, by the fire.

"Gepetto made it for me," Louise says of the chair, stripping off her coat and hat. "Most of the women from the old world are a little more comfortable with that than the stirrups in the hospital. I don't think Maleficent has much experience with either, but I thought it might be an option." She has that soft, blue green outfit on underneath her coat, that's much like pyjamas. In this world, it's undeniably medical and that comforts Lily.

"And hello," the nurse finishes, setting down a heavy black bag that also seems to put Lily at ease. "How's everyone doing?"

"You're asking us?"

"Lily, your mother has one thing to focus on and worry about, the rest of you don't have your minds occupied in the same manner. It's my job to look after all of you, family too." She hangs up her coat and picks up the bag. "I find these go easier if everyone's calm, all their questions are answered, and they've eaten. So, why don't you all eat the pizza while it's hot, and I'll see about Maleficent."

Emma slips off her boots and smiles at Lily, offering her reassurance. "Pizza's good, I promise."

Reluctantly follow Emma and Killian into the dining room, Lily looks back at Robin one last time. He smiles, watching the tension ease in her shoulders. "Eat. Regina and I will trade."

In the living room,, the fire's burned low, throwing heat from the embers, but the sweat on the back of Regina's neck isn't from that. Mal doesn't look up, and her breathing's harsher than it was when he left. He sits down beside her, running his hand down her lower back.

He leans close and whispers to her, promising that it's all right. That she's strong, that she's doing so well. The contraction ends with a shuddering breath, a gasp for mercy that cuts straight through him.

"They're close," Regina says, stroking Mal's cheek.

"That's good." He adds his hands to Mal's face, helping her lift her head. "It's all right. We're here." He slips closer, taking Regina's place so that Mal leans against his chest. "There's pizza in the dining room, go eat. I've got her."

"Pizza?"

"Emma brought it. It's hot, eat."

"Go, Regina," Mal's voice is all too soft, like gravel over stones.

Regina kisses her forehead. "Don't go anywhere."

Mal rocks her hips a little on the sofa and he rubs her shoulders, then her back, humming nothing. Stray melodies that Roland loved when he was a child keep popping into his head, and he half-sings them to her.

"Is this okay, here?"

"I don't- how would I-" Mal shuts her eyes and swallows. "Everything hurts."

He kisses her cheek, brushing her tears away. "Worse in your back or in your hips? Can you feel the head? Marian said it was like a stone, sinking its way through her. Like an egg?"

"Eggs don't squirm."

"Hello little feet," Robin whispers to her belly. "We'll see you soon."

Mal takes another breath and it hisses through her teeth. Shaking her head, she holds onto him, digging her fingers into his upper arms. "I can't--"

"Okay, up? Should we try standing again?"

She's heavier against him, needing him to take much of her weight. Robin walks her towards the fireplace, off the thick rug, just in case. The next contraction announces itself with a moan, but she's tired, and pain trembles through her. He moves with her, swaying back and forth.

"Bend your knees, I've got you. I've got you. You're safe." Her fingers fist in his tank top, and he kisses her forehead, then her cheek. "Relax, let it happen. Everything is fine." Her moan turns sharp, painful, and all he can do is wait it out with her, keeping his breathing even, swaying back and forth.

"Are your legs okay? Still shipshape?"

Mal makes a soft sound in her throat, almost like laughter. "The pirate's back?"

"With pizza."

She grabs the back of the sofa and he takes the opportunity to grab her tea. It's gone lukewarm, but she needs the liquid. Her hands tremble when she reaches for it, and he steadies it for her. They'll need a straw. Some of it runs down her chin, but she's already so wet that it doesn't matter, her nightgown already clings to her skin.

"Drink."

He barely gets the mug down before he's swept up with her, riding this out, rubbing her back because that seems to make her breathing easier. His bare feet step on something wet on the wood and it's not tea, because it's warm. When Marian's water broke, it gushed into the straw in front of the fire. This is slower, pooling around Mal's bare feet.

"Your water."

"Must be why it fucking hurts."

"Here," he offers, taking her from the back of the sofa, holding her close. "She's almost here, you're almost done, the horizon's getting grey, and the snow's still falling. She'll have a beautiful birthday. Soft and white and quiet."

Regina still has her pizza in her hand when she returns, gulping it down. Robin smiles at her over Mal's head.

"Tell Louise her water's going slow, but we're there."

"We are?" Regina's wide eyes make him smile.

"And bring a straw."

She nods, mouth full of pizza, and heads back into the kitchen. Louise, Emma, Killian and Lily accompany her, arms full of supplies. They move the sofa, shift the rug and roll it out of the way. Emma brings him the straw and it's easier to get Mal to drink more of her tea, but she's fading, less focused. Her arms shake, and her legs will be next. With Emma's help, he braces Mal against the wall, with them in front of her.

"What's happening to her?" Lily asks as Regina takes his place, her face in front of Mal's giving her something to hold on to.

"Transition," Louise offers, laying out the blue sheets for the floor. She has a very comforting smile for Lily. "Big adrenaline rush, endorphins, oxytocin, it's a good thing."

Lily passes him cold pizza on a paper towel and stares, mouth slightly open, while her mother continues to tremble. "I'm not having children."

"You don't have to," Robin assures her, wolfing the pizza down as quickly as Regina did. He didn't even think about it, but he's starved, running on emotion, instead of food and sleep. "Or perhaps you can do it the dragon way. It seems easier."

She quirks her mouth slightly, but Mal's gasp of pain melts that in a moment. Something guttural echoes through it, deep and low. She has Emma, and Regina, and it's only with them there that he can force himself to finish eating and drink the soda Killian hands him. He'll need the sugar.

Even the pirate winces, listening. "Is she?"

"She's fine. This is the hard part."

"Only now you'd call it hard?" Killian raises his eyebrows.

"It builds, and this is the breaking point, after this, the child usually arrives. Perhaps with the sun."

Killian pats his shoulder and takes the empty can of soda. "What else can I do?"

"More tea? She does better with warmer drinks."

"Aye, I'll return with it."

"It's the box by the stove."

Wiping his hands on the towel, he returns to them, taking Emma's place so he and Regina stand together, sheltering Mal from the world as labor strips all of her defenses away. Behind them, Emma, Louise and Lily continue to change the living room, setting out tools on the far table, moving pillows and the birthing stool. That practicality will help Lily, give her something to focus on.

Some dims the lights and after the activity it's quiet, enveloping like the snow outside. It's approaching dawn, and Robin's lost track of the time entirely becuase it's unimportant. This is measured in breaths, in gasps, in hissing and gritted teeth.

"Keep her feet below her hips," Louise orders him and Regina, because Mal's beyond listening, "it'll open her pelvis. Talk to her, even if she doesn't respond. She hears you."

More fluid pools at Mal's feet, and between Mal, the fire and Regina, his skin seems to steam. It's all hot and wet and the tears slip into that, disappearing down her neck. Regina kisses her, whispers to her, and he hums again, stroking her arm and her neck, steadying her while the shaking peaks, then slows.

"Why did you make it dark?" Lily asks behind them, her voice tentative, somehow small.

Louise's voice is steady as an oak. "To help your mother relax."

"But you can't see."

"I don't need to right now, this is just waiting."

"Still?"

"It takes awhile," adds a softer voice, Emma. "Feels like forever."

"But--"

Robin leans closer in, breathing with Mal and Regina, falling into the rhythm of it because the contractions roll in heavy, one after another, crashing like the nor'easter sea. The old world never had storms like Maine. The wind howls around the house and in the chimney, Mal groans into his neck, but she's still here. Still with them, so strong.

She's only half-aware of them speaking, of their faces in her vision, but she leans into them, touching their cheeks with hers. Robin smiles at Regina, and nuzzles her like a dragon. They guide Mal down to her knees on the pillows, her head in Regina's lap while he rubs a slow pattern on her back. Mal's hands ball into fists in Regina's clothing, on the sofa, and then Emma's there, and Lily, taking her fingers and stroking them, easing that tension.

Lily stares at him, her eyes so wide they almost glow in the firelight.

"It's all right," he promises her. "This is all right."

"The shaking stopped."

"It did."

"Does that-?"

"She'll tell us," Louise says. She touches Lily's shoulder, standing and watching. "When they get pushy, you always know."

"Pushy?"

Regina looks at her daughter, her face soft with caring. "It'll be soon."

"Soon is pretty fucking relative."

Robin strokes sweaty hair out of Mal's face and whispers to her before kissing her forehead again. "We love you, Regina, Lily and I, Roland and Henry, we love you so very much."

She blinks, focusing on him for a moment before her eyes fade again. Mal mumbles something back, but it's unformed, inhuman: that stones and embers language that none of them understand.

"Draconic," Regina says, catching his gaze. "I think."

Robin keeps stroking her face and looks up at Lily, who stares back, her forehead tight with worry.

"I don't speak that."

"You do," Regina reminds her, gentle but firm. "It's genetic."

Lily shakes her head, releasing Mal's hand and slipping back. "I don't understand what she said. I can't help her."

"Yes you do," Emma urges her. "Just listen. It'll click."

"She could be dying."

"She's not."

"I don't know what she's saying."

Regina leans down, kissing Mal's head before she looks up at Lily and waits.

"I don't--" Lily protests again, afraid, small, and Robin would hold her if he could. Killian rests his hand on her shoulders, keeping her close. Emma smiles at her, ever optimistic, like her mother.

Mal mutters something again and Lily starts to cry, tears fighting their way through her control.

"Mom--"

At first, Robin assumes that plea is for Mal, a half-apology that Lily doesn't understand, but Lily looks at Regina, begs her.

"Mom, I can't--"

Regina leans towards her, and their foreheads touch. "Yes you can, everything's fine."

"It's not," Lily protests, but doesn't pull away. "It's not, I don't know how you can sit here, how you can watch this." She winces, shudders with the next sound Mal makes as if it cuts right through her.

In the quiet, Robin leans closer to Mal, listening to the words that aren't words to him. He murmurs back, love, admiration and unwavering support. They're here, they're all here for her and this baby. She'll be so loved.

"I'm not enough," Lily says, stumbling over the words as if she's just learned them. "I'm not strong enough."

"What?"

"That's what she said," Lily clarifies, startled by her own understand. "She's not strong enough." She turns away, gutted, burying her face against Killian's chest. He holds her

Regina curls over again, whispering to Mal while Emma holds her hands.

"I remember that," Emma says, "the giving up part."

He nods and with Regina, nestles Mal in, so it's just them, faces touching, sharing the same breath.

"You are," Regina whispers. "You are and we love you."

Robin rubs his thumb along Mal's cheek. "You're almost there."


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baby arrives, surrounded by her family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took so long, fandom had me down for awhile, but I'm really happy with how this worked out. It was longer than I thought, so Henry and Roland meet their sister in the next chapter. 
> 
> Many thanks to holdouttrout, shinewithalltheuntold, gotatheory, idoltina and geeky-galpal for holding my hand while this took shape. You're all so wonderful. 
> 
> Descriptions of childbirth, non-graphic.

"You were always enough," Regina whispers. Her words might be lost, in breathing, heartbeats and pain, but she means it with all of her soul. "You are so brave. You faced things I never could." 

Mal shifts in her lap, her head wet and heavy against Regina's thighs. She kneels in front of her, leaning forward so that her head rests on Regina on the sofa. Regina strokes her neck, her shoulders, and touches her face. This repeats over and over, but Mal's slipped into some kind of otherworld where she whispers in dragon and doesn't hear anything during contractions. She can't be comforted. No amount of hand-holding can take this from her or make it bearable. Contractions march, one after the other, soldiers in faceless army. 

There were breaks before, moments where they could make her smile, and drink something, but now they're so short. Mal barely has time to catch her breath or reach any kind of lucidity before then they start again, rising, cresting like waves. Robin's found some places on her back to rub, some muscles he can ease. He can help there, so Regina turns to Emma, gesturing at her lap. "Can you-?"

"Me?"

Regina nods, running her fingers across damp skin. "I want her to look at me. Maybe she'll see me." They can't talk to her, not without Lily here to help understand dragon, and Lily needs a break, so she's with Hook. They're outside, watching the snow, drinking, whatever Lily needs. Regina can't worry about her, or the boys, fast asleep at Marian's. 

Mal needs her. 

Emma slides over on the sofa, taking Mal's head from Regina's lap and settling her on her thigh. Regina slips down to the floor beside her, so close that she kisses Mal's shoulder. 

"I've finally listened to you," Regina whispers. Meeting Mal's half-closed blue eyes, she leans closer. "You told me to find another hobby, something else to live for." She brushes her fingers against Mal's cheek, then under her eyes, easing her tears away. "I found it." 

Mal blinks, then her eyes steady. Her hand wraps around Regina's wrist and she squeezes. She mutters something in broken sounds, Dragon, not English at all. Regina wishes she could make herself understood; that she could make sense of this and help, but it's only a moment. The next contraction hits and Mal's gone again, gasping incoherently into Emma's jeans. 

Robin smiles at her over Mal's back, his hands moving in a consistent pattern, brushing against the cloth of Mal's nightgown, trying to ease the pain back. Keep it manageable. "She knows we're here, even if it doesn't seem that way."

"We'll never leave you." Regina's fingers slide through the sweat on Mal's chin, and her neck, yet touching can't possibly be enough. "I'm the one who's not enough for you, dear," she murmurs, taking on Mal's manner of speaking. If only she could take the pain as easily. This is not an illness that she can heal. 

"I love you." She kisses Mal's forehead, then her sodden hair. "We love you so much." 

"She knows."

"I could--" she starts then sighs and just shakes her head. "I'd take it if I could."

"You know magic doesn't work that way." He leans closer and reaches out for her, brushing his hand across his cheek. "Even if you want it to."

"Why can't it?" Emma's question startles them both. Perhaps it's because Mal's panting in her lap, and Emma wants to save everyone. "Can't you use magic to--?'

"Pain can only be transferred to the unwilling through dark magic, light magic--" Regina shivers, her body reminding her that she hasn't slept; that she gulped down pizza hours ago and now the grey horizon turns over the snow in the backyard. She aches, heart and body, and none of it matters next to Mal. 

"Light magic hasn't found a way to make this easier," Regina finishes. She kisses Mal's forehead again, lowering her voice for her. "I'm sorry." 

"She's so quiet. I sobbed and screamed my way through." Emma doesn't say that to be comforted, yet Louise walks around and Robin looks up and in the little circle around Maleficent, maybe that part of Emma can heal. 

"You were young," Robin says, "and alone. I think being with the people you love makes it easier on everyone, mother and baby." 

Regina listens to him soothe Emma and talk about Roland's birth, in another world on a hot summer night with the stars thick overhead, far from the snow and the frigid Maine wind. She hums to Mal, leaning closer, resting their foreheads together as pain crests and Mal's breath grows sharp, and deep.

"Remind her to breathe slowly," Louise suggests behind her. "If you breathe with her, slow, steady, it'll help her focus."

Rolling her eyes at the ceiling, Regina lets go of the idea that she can reach her, at all, because perhaps Robin's right, they just have to wait. She'll come back on her own. Mal knows they're there, and that's enough, somehow.

Regulating her breathing reminds her of her mother's lessons in etiquette, of how to present herself like a queen. None of that was about love, or protection, but it's of use now. Regina slows her breathing, leans close, meets Mal's eyes and the contraction fades. 

"There," she whispers. "There, it's all right." 

Mal's blue eyes open more than they have in the last hour, and she swallows. "You rolled your eyes." 

Regina can't help smiling, reaching for her chin. "You saw that?"

"I saw."

"Welcome back."

"You said you wouldn't leave me." Mal's words are slow, strangely accented, as if she's remembering how to speak. 

"I can't, not this time." 

Regina leans closer, rubbing her forehead against Mal's in the way that always makes her smile. "We're right here, even if you go somewhere, we're here. Robin and me, and Lily, Louise." 

Mal nods but she's fading, disappearing into the next contraction. Her eyes shut, and then they focus on her breathing, almost as one, because she follows Regina. Trusts her in that unfathomable way that no one should trust her. This isn't facing an army, there's nothing Regina can defeat. This facing the sea, watching the waves crest, crash, fall over her before slipping out to fall again. Regina can't get in front of it, can't stop it, can't ease this, but she can touch her, whisper, breath in counterpoint. 

Stroking Mal's shoulders, Regina waits for her eyes to open again, for her to return, even in moments, but this is her storm. 

"It's been awhile since I've seen the sunrise," Emma says. Regina only catches it as part of a conversation she's been ignoring as it happens over her head. Golden light streams from the window in earnest, chasing the darkness. 

This is her daughter's birthday, this brilliant day where the sun gleams on the snow. She kisses Mal's forehead, and strokes sweat from her hair. Regina's fingers meet Emma's, both of them moving in a slow rhythm, keeping Mal grounded. 

"She's okay," Emma promises. "She knows you're here." 

Robin's hand rests on Regina's shoulder, startling her. "Killian and Lily are going to make breakfast, we all should eat." 

She turns to him for a moment and his expression softens into a smile. Regina touches his cheek, fingertips dragging over his stubble. The dark circles under his eyes must mirror her own, but he smiles so easily. 

"I'll bring it to you, you won't need to leave her." 

"Thank you."

"It'll be worth it," he promises. 

When she looks up, Emma nods. "And you don't remember, I barely remember the hard parts of when Henry was born. Just how little he was when they handed him to me. Even though that's not real, I guess it's the better memory." Emma's little smile has a wistful edge to it. She was alone when Henry came, and that must be why she's so willing to stay, to forgo sleep and hold Mal's head in her lap and share herself. "She'll remember you, Robin, and the baby, and all of this hard part gets kind of foggy." 

Mal slips closer to her, panting into Regina's shoulder and it's hard to believe any of this could be forgotten, because pain remains. It lingers in the dark corners of Regina's mind, but this is different. Mal can smile at her in the lulls. 

Mal is her world. She's what matters. This is her struggle: exhausting, wearing and wet with sweat and fluid. Regina shouldn't worry about the blood because it's only traces, just some on a towel, on Mal's legs as the last of the amniotic fluid trickles down her thighs. Her belly's flatter now, holding just the baby, and none of the fluid that kept her safe. Regina can almost trace her daughter through muscle and flesh. She's watched her grow, felt her move, worried that she would be safe, would be healthy, that she make it to this point, but she's almost here. 

And she loves her, loves them both, loves Robin, Roland, and Henry so much that her heart must surely glow around the darkness, around the loss and pain. This is her family, and they are her world now: her reason for living so much more potent than any revenge. 

Mal can't hear her, or doesn't, so Regina expresses her affection in her hands, with her mouth, in rocking with her against her chest. They slip through waves together, diving under, but Mal can't hold her breath. Regina makes sure she doesn't. 

Towards the end of the last contraction, there's a word, something Regina doesn't understand a scratching, gasped, sort of word. Dragon, again, because trying to remember English through the mess of everything happening in her mind must be too much. 

Mal repeats it, blinking, and her eyes find Regina. Is it a question? A request? Something she can do? 

"Hey," Regina says, resting her forehead against Mal's in the way that calms her. "I don't understand."

"Hot," Robin says, coming to her rescue. "I'd have to ask Lily, but I think that's 'hot'. She's been trying to teach me." 

"Hot?" It's warm in the room, and Mal's nightgown, thin as it is, is drenched with sweat. "We can open the window."

"No, just take off her nightgown," Louise suggests. She sets down her mug and kneels beside Regina and Robin. "Think we're getting close."

Removing the nightgown will make Maleficent entirely naked, but she doesn't care. Emma won't-- Lily, Killian, they're in the kitchen. 

"It's all right," Robin assures her. "She's close now, Marian did the same thing." 

"Okay." They shift, Mal's hands moving to Robin's arms while Emma and Regina slip her nightgown off her shoulders, then down. There's no shyness, no vulnerability, because somehow she's past that as they strip her. 

"Better?" Robin asks her, kissing her cheek. 

"Yes." That's English. Human. 

Mal's skin gleams pink with effort and sweat, and the soft morning sunlight finds what color it can in her wet hair. She curls into Robin's arms, breathing with him while Regina watches them, something softening in the pit of her stomach, because naked and worn, stripped of all but a few words, she's beautiful. Mal's safe. They're all around her. 

Robin meets her eyes and that something burns until Regina's warm all the way through. "She's almost here," he whispers through this contraction, steady and patient. 

Emma says something soft to Louise, something gentle, sweet, about how it's nice that they have both. That there's Robin to look after Regina while Regina lets Mal consume her thoughts. At some point, Regina have to move, to stretch or use the bathroom and she has to remind herself that it is acceptable to care of her own needs. So she stands: legs aching, back stiff. 

She nods again to Robin and heads to the bathroom. Washing her hands, she splashes cold water onto her face. Regina barely recognizes herself in the mirror: pale, rumpled, exhausted. Passing through the kitchen she smells bacon, which must be in the oven, and Lily and Hook are making something something, and there's coffee, always more of that. 

Hook hands her something in a mug, not coffee "Drink." 

"Robin, Emma, they've got her," Lily says, almost as if she needs to say that for herself too. She's calmer in the kitchen than she was before, better with something to do. She chops an onion for whatever's for breakfast, her hand quick with the knife. That fear's still in her eyes, but she can smile a little. "It's a smoothie, I didn't know if you'd eat, but this you can drink quick and get back." 

Regina sniffs it, then lifts the mug and drinks. It's thick, sweet, cold, and she has to work to swallow because her stomach's tight. So is her chest, and Lily and Killian's eyes both rest on her. "Thank you." She swallows more, becoming more human as it settles. "She's okay, she's tough." 

Lily barely looks up over the cutting board in front of her. Hook's hand touches her arm, and she glances at him before looking at Regina. "I can't watch." She shakes her head and sets down the knife. "I don't know how you and Robin do it." 

"It's a process, not torture," Regina says. She forces herself to drink more of the smoothie, and it goes down easier this time. She even tastes the strawberries. "Your mother's all right."

"How can she be all right? She's speaking dragon!" Lily throws up her hands and takes a step back from the cutting board, before crossing her arms over her chest. She stiffens, as if frustrated by her own outburst. 

"It's just transition," Regina explains. "It's hormones and exhaustion. She'll come through it."

"You could have talked her into having the baby in the hospital, an epidural--"

Hook touches her shoulder and Lily doesn't shake him off. "You know that's not how your mother does things, love." He meets Regina's eyes and smiles. "Either of them. This is what she wanted. Home, safe."

Lily's shudder passes through her whole body and she stares towards the living room as if she can see through the wall. "Safe?"

"She's all right, Lily."

Staring at the clock on the oven, Lily shakes her head and holds herself tighter. "It's been fourteen hours since the play started, and who knows how long she had contractions before that. She hasn't even been coherent since the sun came up. How can this keep going? How can you say this is safe?"

Killian touches her arm, and smiles in sympathy. He takes Regina's empty mug and passes her a glass of water. He pours another glass, presumably for Robin, or Emma, and heads into the living room, leaving them to work this out between them. 

"She _feels_ safe," Regina says over the glass of water and the island. "She doesn't know the hospital. This is her home, she's more comfortable."

Lily blinks, fighting tears. "But we can't do anything, and it hurts."

Regina nods, understanding her immediately. She circles the island and stands beside her. "There's not much they can do at the hospital either."

"In the other world, someone I knew had an epidural and she slept through contractions. You have those here." 

"And your mother would never let a stranger that close to her, to your sister. She couldn't let them make her numb. Not after what happened--" Regina pauses, then looks up at her daughter's face. Mal's in her, in her nose and the way she tightens her jaw. Regina's in her too, especially this stubborn side. "We talked about it, Mal, Robin and I, for weeks. Robin's from the old world, so running water and electricity, clean towels, these are luxuries compared to over there, and your mother--"

"Is stubborn."

Regina shakes her head. Reaching for Lily's chin, she lifts her eyes so they look at each other. "Is afraid of losing this baby, like she did you. Everything else is secondary for her. Here, she feels safest, so here is where she'll have the baby, and it's going well"

Lily sniffs, then the tears start break through her control. "It's horrifying." 

"I know."

"It must be so awful for you too, you love her, you know--"

Regina touches her shoulder, and then, gently, they hug, Lily folding into her, crumpling in relief. "We're in this together, Robin, your mother and I, so it's not awful. Your sister's going to be here, and we'll hold her."

"Mom never held me."

Regina's chest aches and her throat tightens. She also never held Lily, never knew of her existence. She was utterly lost before she'd even arrived into the world. "I know we failed you, but your sister: she's never going to doubt she's loved. Not for one moment." 

Lily lifts her head and their eyes meet, and Regina would give so much to soften to rough patches of Lily's memories, to ease the pain that was her life. 

"And that means here, on the living room floor?"

"We'll be able to tease her someday."

Lily shakes her head. "I can't wrap my head around her being a person. She's just 'the baby'."

"Who made your mother so sick."

"Yes!" Lily sniffs again, crying harder as she reaches for a paper towel. "How do I- I don't know- let her be a person?"

"When I saw Henry, he was real. All the paperwork and the wondering couldn't make him real. He became a person the moment I held him."

Nodding, Lily hugs her again, this time tight, like Henry when he really needs her. "You're a good mom, you know that?"

Regina pats her cheek, makes sure Lily sees her smile, calm and hopeful. "I love you. We love you."

"I know."

"Good." She spends another moment rubbing Lily's arm, helping dry her tears, and then she has to go back. 

Lily looks at her, through her. "Get her through this."

Regina finds a way to smile, and it surprises her as much as Lily. "She is okay, she's incredible." Lily won't understand, maybe not even after her sister arrives. Her heart tugs her towards Mal and Robin and the terrifying promise of a another daughter, wet, squirming and vulnerable. 

Mal''s on her knees, her hands on Robin's shoulders and her head on his chest. Her breathing's sharp, painful, but he's with her. When Regina grows closer, she hears him whispering to her. He rubs his forehead against hers when Mal looks up, soothing her like a dragon. 

Robin smiles over her shoulder, nodding for Regina. "We're all right. I think they're slowing down." 

"Slowing down?"

"Gives mom a little break before we get to the last part," Louise explains. She kneels beside Robin and Mal, wrapping a little cuff around her wrist to check her blood pressure. She strokes her arm, gentle, careful make sure Mal knows she's there, even if it's just physically. Perhaps because she does this more often, unlike the rest of them, Nurse Ratched isn't exhausted; her eyes aren't puffy like Regina's or Robin's. Regina's profoundly grateful for her steadiness. 

The blood pressure cuff beeps and Louise removes it, checking the numbers and nodding. "Numbers are good, blood pressure, pulse rate, temperature, don't worry." The last statement is punctuated with a hand on Regina's shoulder and she tries not to wince. "I bet you'll be holding your baby by lunch time." 

Regina's stomach twists at the thought, but she can't place it as excitement or panic, or perhaps shouldn't have drunk her breakfast so quickly. 

"I know it's hard," Louise continues, "she's doing well, you're all here for her and Maleficent knows that. Believe it or not Madame Mayor, this is pretty straightforward, other than speaking Dragon, I suppose, that's been new." She smiles, again, and Regina manages to make her own mouth move in response. It's probably more of a grimace. 

Robin's whispered conversation with Mal has responses, she realizes as she joins them on the floor. Words still come slowly, as if Mal has to reach her mind through the fog of hormones and exhaustion, but Robin's smiling so easily now. 

"They slowed down," he says. "It's been well over a minute now, I think we're through."

Regina's eyes sting, and she kisses his hand where it sits on Mal's shoulder. He draws her closer, his fingers on his cheek, and once she's leaned into them, Regina sees Mal's eyes. They're open, unclouded, as if Mal finally sees her, sees him. She's been buried in waves for hours, but now, now she's here again. 

"Regina."

"How do you feel?"

Mal's breathing changes, and worry swells until she laughs, weak, soft, and utterly exhausted, but amused. "I've been dead, you know."

"I know."

"That was easier."

Regina kisses her cheek, then her forehead, and the three of them curl close, sharing their faces and their breath. "We're here."

"I know."

"Are you ready to meet her?" Robin asks, drawing their attention back to the wonder of this. The reason they're all here is so close now.

"No," Mal mutters. One of her hands moves to Regina's shoulder and she sighs, hissing through some rising discomfort. 

"Breathe."

She shudders, shaking her head. Mal looks at Robin "It's different."

"I know," Robin soothes her. "Pressure?"

"Are you sure she's not an egg?" The question is genuine, and Mal's eyes widen. She grits her teeth and Regina rubs her shoulder. 

"We've felt her feet enough."

Mal's reply turns into a growl, but it's different, purposeful somehow. Is this pushing? Have they made it that far? Regina glances up at the faces who surround her and Emma nods, her smile sweet and knowing. 

"Pushing feels pretty strange." 

"What do we-?"

"Push with the contraction," Louise says. "Don't force it, keep breathing." She turns her attention to Robin and her voice lightens. "Robin, you should go wash your hands." He kisses Mal before he leaves her, and she seems to notice his absence. A soft part of Regina's mind reminds her that he's washing his hands to catch the baby. They've reached that point. 

"Got it," Emma says, and then she's there, beside Regina on the floor. 

Panting into Regina's shoulder, Mal lists her head, noticing Emma moments after she traded with Robin. As the contraction fades, Emma explains that they're going to try and get her more upright, take her off her knees for awhile. It's more for Regina's benefit than Mal's, and Louise's practicality is in Emma's words. They were talking, planning, and Regina heard none of it. 

"Okay, Emma, Regina, behind her, keep her steady, gives her something to bear down against, Dad, you're up front with me. Let's see how we're doing." 

"We're right here," Regina promises when Mal's focus drifts. Everything's moving around her and whatever 's happening now is fast, sudden, and she's lost. "We're with you."

Louise's voice carries a gentle authority as she helps shift Mal's body. "We're going to get your feet down, open your hips up then work on meeting this baby."

Between them, they get her settled, resting on the little wooden stool before the next contraction starts. 

"Look at me," Robin says, drawing Mal's eyes when her focus drifts. "Look at me. It's all right. Relax, let her come."

Mal's fingers dig into Regina's and across her shoulders, Emma has her other hand. She's safe. They have her.

"Just like an egg," he teases. 

Mal makes a noise, half-snort of laughter, half-guttural groan. "An egg was easier."

"Bigger body, smaller egg, I know," Robin and Louise's hands brush across Mal's belly, checking the baby, feeling for her shoulders, her legs.

"You've got this," he promises. Robin adds something else in dragon, rasping, scratchy, and the intensity of his eyes while he and Mal look at each other makes her heart skip. They're connected, in a way she never asked of them, never expected when this started. Mal's breathing slows, her hands steady, because she loves him. She trusts his hands between her thighs, looks into his face and believes that there's an endz that the baby will come, finally, after all these hours. 

There's something between them, something precious, independent of them as a unit, just as there's something between Regina and each of them, and them together. She knew, but now she sees it, naked on their faces. They love, and she loves them all the fiercer for it. 

Louise whispers to him and Robin nods, becoming the voice Mal listens to. "Bear down, use Regina and Emma's strength. Keep breathing."

The contraction rises, peaks with some vile draconic curse that makes the air tingle, then fades. Mal's head rests on Regina's shoulder while she catches her breath. 

"We see her head," Robin says his voice thick with wonder. "She's almost here, and she has Regina's hair."

Regina kisses Mal's forehead, because she's there, because their daughter is so close to their arms. "Really?"

"Darker than Lily's, I bet. Next contraction, you can feel it." 

That promised contraction builds, growing, but without the dread of earlier. This rises like the wind over the sea, like summer rain breaking from the heat. 

Emma and Regina hold, giving Mal something to arch her back into, something to crush in her hands. Robin guides Mal's right hand, the one wrapped in Regina's down, and together they touch their daughter's wet head. It's warm, slick like a wet stone, and her hair--

"She has hair," Mal murmurs to Robin.

"Not an egg," he promises. "Just a few more and you'll see."

Mal's capable of such patience, waiting for years when she needs to, but now, she has none of it. She races into the next contraction, throwing her body into pushing, gasping until the growling returns, deep and low. 

"Gently," Louise says, fluttering around something between Mal's legs. Her hands check for the cord, clear the baby's nose and mouth before it hits Regina that the head is out. These things don't occur until the head is free, and Robin holds that in his hands.

He meets her eyes, tears already shining on his face. "Almost."

"Careful," Louise says. "Give yourself time to stretch. You don't want to tear."

Mal doesn't hear her. Regina can tell in the way she tenses, in the way she leans into the contraction and quiets, turns inward. She's ready, she wants this baby here, now, and she has the formidable dragon's strength, even in this body. 

Louise and Robin discuss the shoulders, their hands like birds, then there's a wet pop, a slippery sound and Robin leans back, something red and wet clutched against his chest. 

She- _their daughter_ \- this tiny perfect being, lies against him, rubbery and not even real until she squirms. 

Robin hands her across and Mal's hands come with Regina's and Emma's and they're all around the baby, holding her tight to Mal's naked chest. The cord pulses from her belly, grey-blue, shiny-wet. There's more fluid on the floor, and a scent of copper tinges the air. 

Mal feels none of it, holding their daughter. She sobs, laughs, shudders against Emma and Regina, and Robin's there, steadying her, _them_ , crying as well. Regina's tears run hot, and she can barely breathe because the baby mewls, not even a wail of indignation. Maybe she knows how closely she's held, how long she's been awaited, wanted, how much she's loved. 

"We've got her," Robin announces in a voice like the sun, because baby doesn't seem interested in crying. She has her deep blue eyes fixed on her mother's face. Mal rubs fluid off of their daughter's face, her fingers sure and steady. 

"Here." Regina hands her a towel and Mal doesn't even look up, so Regina starts to clean off the baby's red skin, gently taking off the pink fluid and sticky vernix. 

Mal and the baby stare at each other, lost in their own little world until Regina touches her hand and finally, Mal looks up. 

Using a clean corner of the towel, Regina dries her face. "You did it."

"We--" Mal insists and her smile radiates such joy that Regina's own tears fall faster and Robin kisses them away. "I couldn't have, not without you both."

Robin touches the baby's toes, then her hand, finally he rests his hand on her back, meeting Mal's smile with a matching grin of his own. "She's perfect, and ours." 

The baby's breathing is regular, that kind of infant quick Regina remembers from Henry. Louise makes her notes behind them, and the hand on Regina's shoulder is Emma's.

"She's beautiful." Emma too has tears on her face, and her voice is thick and soft. "Congratulations."

"Can you get Lily?" Regina asks, because Lily should see her sister, and her mother.

"Yeah, she's here," Emma says, pointing behind her and Regina turns. 

Lily stands next to Louise, watching her fill in a little chart with the baby's vital signs. "Just about perfect," Louise promises. "She's a good size too, close to eight pounds, I'd guess. I'll let her eat and to know her parents before I weigh her."

"Eat?" 

"Nursing usually helps with the placenta, the baby's immune system, getting her digestive system going. Come, watch." 

"Lily, Lily, she's wonderful," Regina adds, drying her hands before she reaches for her older daughter's. 

"Is mom okay?" she asks in a whisper, half-hiding behind Regina. "It smells like blood."

"She tore a little," Louise says, kneeling back down to check on some of the towels. "Might need a few stitches, I was going to wait until after the placenta was out to decide."

"The placenta?"

"They're still attached." Regina indicates the cord against Mal's flattened stomach. "It takes awhile."

"Doesn't hurt," Emma says, quickly responding to the look on Lily's face. "After the baby it just kind of slides out. It's pretty crampy for awhile, but it's nothing like it was." 

"Lily?" Mal's voice gets through to her. 

"She's beautiful," Regina promises, leading her over. "She looks like you."

"She has Regina's nose," Robin adds, making room on the floor. 

Baby's dark hair has started to dry, soft and mussed. She's still curled into Mal's chest, safe against her breasts. Lily stares at her, then her mother, then back at the baby, who squirms, moving closer to one of Mal's heavy breasts.

"She's awake."

"She's hungry," Robin says, rubbing his finger against the baby's tiny chin. "See if she'll nurse."

It takes three of them, shifting the baby, helping guide Mal's unfamiliar hands. The baby roots for her mother's nipple, seeking it with her bright red mouth. Mal's expression shifts from confusion, to wonder, then soft surprise as the baby starts to nurse in earnest. 

Once she's settled, Robin eases Lily's hand closer, then brings it to her sister's naked back. "Little flame, meet your sister. She's as incredible as you are." 

"I--"

"Lily?"

"She's so little."

Regina and Robin support the baby, freeing up Mal's left hand to reach for her other daughter, to half hug her. The baby eats well, nudging the soft flesh of Mal's breast with her fist and making little suckling sounds. Mal hugs Lily close, and she stays, watching her sister with the reptilian intensity that she shares with her mother, and the littlest member of their family. 

Time slips, seemingly losing track of them as much as they're paying it no mind. Louise writes down the next numbers for baby's Apgar scores while she's nursing away, absolutely content. 

"We can cut the cord now, set them free from each other."

Emma returns from a trip upstairs with some pyjamas to replace Mal's discarded ones. Nursing brings back contractions that 

Mal.and the baby, hurry."

Robin helps Mal switch the baby to her other breast, so both sides have been tasted and Mal only grimaces a little from the afterbirth contractions, she's so enamoured with the baby. 

Even having seen that her mother is well, Lily's face is still white, and looking down makes her notice the bloody towels by her mother's feet. She swallows, steeling herself. "We have to cut it?"

"It's a little tough," Louise says, readily the clamps and scissors. "It's a pretty easy snip, if you'd like to do the honors?"

Lily stares at the scissors, and slick, still cord itself. She shakes her head, turning her eyes to the baby and her mother. "I can't."

"Regina?" Louise passes her the handles of the cold scissors. 

"You connected us," Mal says softly, over the baby's head. "Seems only fair."

Robin nods, then leans over to kiss her cheek when she hesitates. "Set her free."

The cord is tough and sinewy, but the scissors are sharp and the clamps hold. While Louise studies the cord, the afterbirth slips free, with more fluid. The placenta lies on the pale blue pad like a alien creature, dying in a foreign atmosphere. It kept the baby alive, made her strong, and for that, Regina's grateful to the strange, alien thing.

Louise studies it, checking it over before she nods and sets it aside. "You could freeze it, plant it in the spring. I started many trees that way in the old world."

Regina nods absently, sitting back and watching while Robin, Mal.and Lily fuss over the baby. She's nearly done eating, by the sounds she makes, already starting to fall asleep with a full little belly. 

Henry fell asleep eating often as an infant, and she worried he was eating enough, and sleeping enough (which he was, even though she struggled to believe it). This baby, like her brother, finishing feeding lazily, releasing Mal's breast and staring up at her mother. Her dark blue eyes focus, then start to close. 

Looking up from the baby, Mal searches for Regina's face and smiles, beaming. "Regina, you need to hold her." 

Robin takes her from Mal, murmuring to the baby before he stands, ready to hand to Regina. "We need to get Mal cleaned up before the boys get here." 

On the floor, Louise checks the towel between Mal's legs again and frowns. "She needs a few stitches, it'll be quick."

"Let me help," Emma offers. "I'm getting good at little injuries."

Kissing the baby's head, Robin hands her over to Regina with the brightest smile and goes to help. 

Regina's protest stops before she speaks because the warm weight of the baby rests against her chest, filling her arms. She's so tiny and molds to her. As if she's aware she's changed hands the baby's eyes open for a moment, looking up. For a moment, she worries the baby will cry, sensing she's not with her mother, but she's quiet as they look at each other. 

Her eyes are so blue that they're almost black, dark like Henry's, but not as brown. The baby has Mal's eyes, dark and forever deep. That must be the dragon in her, powerful and more than human. She might have magic too, like Regina and whole new flood of worries washes over her until the baby's mouth moves and she can't think about that. She can't worry about what's coming, what they'll have to teach her, how she'll grow. She's perfect, now, here and whole and separate at last, her own tiny person. 

Unwrapping the receiving blanket a little, Regina studies the toes on her tiny feet, her ankles and her round little knees. Her fingers wriggle when she strokes her fist, impossibly soft and tiny. 

Magic hums a few feet away, Emma's magic, bright and warm. Mal won't have stitches, and with Emma and Robin's help, she stands, weary but steady. She's all right. Regina promised everyone she loved over and over that she was fine, that she was handling this, that she could, that she'd be fine when it was over, and she is. Even naked, battered by the long process of bringing this wonderful baby into the world, Mal's fine. She's smiling at Robin, holding Emma's hand while they clean her up, and Lily watches, then steps forward to help, so when the boys come, they see the wonder, not the toll it took on all of them. 

"You have a family that loves you," Regina murmurs to the baby. "More family than you'll ever know what to do with. Brothers and a sister and aunts and uncles. You'll be surrounded by so many people that adore you as you grow up, and we'll make mistakes, and disappoint you, but we will never stop trying to be better, trying to help you be better."

She kisses her again, breathing in the baby's perfect scent. Tears sting again and Regina doesn't take the time to stop them. She's finally here, and she's the most beautiful baby, just like Henry. "Welcome to Storybrooke."


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fluffy little end with the baby's name. Thank you so much for all your support for this. It was something I needed to write and I am so grateful to everyone who read this and came along with me.

Lily appears in Marian's kitchen, arriving in a cloud of silver-pink smoke. She stands there, smiling until she realizes that they're all staring at her. 

"Shit."

Roland's in the living room, so he doesn't hear. Marian smirks. Henry's eyes go wide. 

"I didn't text. I was going to text." She shakes her head then covers her mouth. "And I fucking swore."

Marian reaches for her arm to calm her and Roland runs in because now he's heard her. Hopefully not the 'fucking' part. 

"Lily!" Roland throws himself at her legs and hugs her. Having him touch her seems to help, she relaxes. 

"Hey little guy, did you sleep okay?"

"Is my baby? Is my baby here?"

All of them stare, hanging on that answer. Lily's eyes are red, and the circles beneath are dark. Marian touches her shoulder, nodding to her and smiling, as if that makes it okay for Lily to smile back. 

"Yeah, she's here, she's tiny and sleepy, and scrunches up her face and her parents are just in love with her. All of them."

"Do we get to go in a poof?" Roland demands, tugging Lily's arm. 

"Patience," Marian says, touching his shoulders. "Maybe Lily needs some tea."

"I'm okay." She finds a better smile this time. "Everyone's okay. Mom's- well, she's exhausted, but she's so happy."

"Roland, why don't you get dressed?" Marian suggests. "When you're back, we'll go to Regina's and meet your sister."

"My sister!" he yells, running off. 

"He'll come back with mismatched socks and two sweaters instead of a t-shirt," Marian says, shaking her head. 

Henry nods, because that sounds right. 

"Mal's all right? No bleeding, tearing?" Marian asks Lily.

Henry's stomach tightens up. Maybe he shouldn't be listening to this. He's dressed already so he doesn't have an easy escape. 

Lily rests her hand on the counter, and Marian hugs her tight. "Emma fixed it," she says into Marian's hair. "Nurse Ratched said she pushed too fast, and the placenta came off a little quick, I really wasn't listening because she was bleeding and--"

"She's all right now," Marian promises her. 

"Emma's healing magic is good." Henry adds. "She's really good with that kind of stuff." Emma's great with blood, though it makes him kind of sick to think about having a baby and then _bleeding_ and he read the book Mom gave him, but that's not the same as actually thinking about it. "Mal's all right, well, as all right as one can be, I guess." 

"I was happy the night Roland was born. Just staring at him made me happy. Exhausted, to be sure, but happy." Marian keeps her arm around Lily, as if she needs to protect her too. "I'm sorry it was hard."

"It wasn't, not really, but--" Lily swallows the next word because Roland's back, somehow dressed. 

His socks don't match and he picked his bright blue sweater and red pants, but he's dressed enough. "Can we meet my baby now?" 

Lily looks down, then up at Marian and nods. "Yeah, they're all right. She's cute, dark hair, eyes like Regina's, maybe they're like mom's, she's only a little awake, and I didn't hold her that long, but you can hold her. She has brothers, the best brothers, so it's about time she met them." 

Roland grins at that and runs to her. "Can we go in a poof?"

"Yeah, I can poof, come here." 

There's another look between Marian and Lily, as if she understands something Lily can put words too. Henry walks over and Lily's hand rests on his shoulder and he touches her back, smiling. 

"I'm glad it went okay."

"Me too, kid." Lily's smile is almost real, sort of, then magic takes them, wraps them up with the funny scent of smoke that Lily's magic has that Mom's doesn't. Mom's smells like apples, just a little, and the house does, because it's hers, but when they arrive in the living room it smells more like cleaning stuff. 

That's probably good, because having a baby was messy. Mom wouldn't have let Lily come get them if it wasn't okay. There's a big blue plastic bag in the corner that no one's taken out yet, and his eyes stay on it, because that must be the mess. 

There's no mess in the living room, just Mom sitting on the sofa, her arms full of this soft little purple blanket. Her hair's a mess, all out of place and the circles under her eyes are heavy. She hasn't slept all night, and this was hard, especially because she must have worried a lot, and now she looks up, crying. 

Mom, happy crying, holding this little baby. His sister. Roland's sister. 

"My baby's here!" Roland says, bouncing, running from Lily's grasp all the way to the sofa. 

"She is." Mom looks at him, her face radiant with affection, before looking back down at the baby. "She's wonderful." 

"Can I hold her?"

"Hey," Lily says, sitting down next to Roland while Henry and Marian walk closer at a more normal speed. "She's really new. Regina just started holding her when I left, so maybe give her some time." 

"She's red." Roland looks up at his mother, pointing excitedly. "Why is she red?"

Marian leans over the baby, smiling before she leans down to kiss her son. "Being inside her mom meant her skin was wet, like when you're in the bath. Now she's out and it'll take her awhile to dry off." 

Henry touches Roland's Lily's shoulder, because she's gone quiet staring at her sister. "What's her name?" 

"Maleficent wanted to wait until you were here," Mom answers, still barely looking up from the baby's little face. She's waited so long for baby to be here, of course she's smitten. 

"I need to record it, for posterity," he teases. 

"When do we get to know?" Roland presses, leaning so close that his face nearly gets kicked when baby stretches. 

She's tiny. No bigger than a football and the little red foot that almost hits Roland seems too small to be a baby foot. Her little fist flails out and he touches her for the first time. Her skin's too soft to be real. 

"Pretty cute, huh kid?" Emma asks from behind him, coming out of the kitchen. 

"If you touch her fist, she'll grab onto you," Mom says. "It's a reflex. You used to grab my fingers so tight I thought you'd never let go." She looks right at him and sighs, so happy that it hurts to look in her eyes. His chest is all hot. 

"There's food in the kitchen," Emma tells Marian, maybe him too, but he's going to touch the baby, see if she'll grab his hand. 

And she does, little red fingers wrapping tight around one of his. "Hi there," he whispers. "I'm Henry." 

"He's your brother," Mom whispers, "and he's the one of the best big brothers you could wish for. Your other brother is right here too, he's Roland, and he wants to hold you very much so we might let him do that while you're awake." 

Baby's huge dark eyes stare up at him, almost skeptical, as if she hasn't figured out what to think. She's really new, so he can give her that. Roland, Marian and Mom tell Roland how to hold her, and how to support her head and they shift her to Roland so gently that she still has Henry's finger. 

His little sister looks up at him, then maybe at Roland and Lily, and for a moment it's just the four of them, different genetics, different lives, all converging in this moment as family, because their parents love each other. Love them, and they've built something together. This warm little place and a knot of people, bigger than he ever expected. 

He barely looks up from his sister, but Mom's at the stairs and Robin and Mal have come down. Mal has a hand on Robin for balance, but she seems all right. Like Mom, they're both glowing, Mal most of all. Marian hugs her and they talk about the baby and share something about the delivery and then Mom kisses Mal, then Robin, and the three of them stand there in a little group of arms and kisses. 

It's okay, the three of them leading, Emma and the pirate, his increasing group of siblings. Lily grins at him, melting with love for the baby, and Roland's beams with pride that he gets to hold her. 

"Mal, my baby is very cute." 

"I'm glad you approve, dear." Mal touches his head, then looks at Henry, and for a moment, he gets it, this aching wonder. She's happy, and Mom, Robin's so happy he laughs at Roland and they're all a knot around the baby, huddled up to watch her blink as if it's the best thing in the world. 

Maybe right now it is. 

"Ignacia," Mal says finally, looking at Robin and Mom. "Her name is Ignacia." 

"Ignacia?" Robin asks. "What's that mean?" 

"Fire," Mom explains, still smiling like her heart's breaking. "From my father's land." There's a look between her and Mal that ask if Mal's sure, and then a kiss, because Mal has decided. 

"Welcome to the family, Ignacia," Robin says, leaning down to kiss her forehead. "You are perhaps the most adored little dragon child ever to grace this Earth, and we love you." 

"We love you," Roland repeats. He smiles over her sleepy face. "We love you so much."

Henry kisses the tiny hand wrapped around his finger. "Welcome to Storybrooke." 


End file.
